Worked To Death

The Boston Globe reports on a study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that looked at opioid deaths by occupation. The results were understandable yet frightening at the same time. According to the study, construction workers were six times more likely to die of an opioid overdose than other workers in the state. Among other occupations most at risk were farming, fishing, and forestry who had opioid death rates five times higher than the average Massachusetts worker. In general, higher rates of opioid deaths occurred among most industries associated with intense manual labor and few worker protections in the form of job security and sick pay.

As the study shows, these workers are not just naturally drug addicts. The job itself leads to more injuries and the pressure of not losing the job leads the workers to seek instant pain relief in the form of opioids. As one environment health professor described it, workers "might very well decide it was better to use opioids than to risk losing their job". Many of these workers end up addicted after being prescribed opioids by a doctor. Others get injured and get pills from other workers. According to on medical director of addiction treatment at a local hospital, "It’s incredibly common for people to report that other people in their workplace have pills...people are getting hurt, and getting offered stuff on the job". He added that most of these addicted workers are not taking opioids to get high on the job, but merely to keep it.

In addition, the lack of a fixed schedule in many of these occupations also make it difficult for workers to sustain addiction treatment. For those who actually have health plans, drugs to combat opioid addiction such as buprenorphine are often not covered by insurance. Workmen's compensation claims take forever to get processed, creating additional financial pressure on the worker to actually return to the job.

These at-risk workers are in occupations that normally have a higher risk of injury to begin with, often because of cost-cutting by their employers. In addition, the employers know that most of these workers are disposable, easily replaced and there is therefore hardly any job security or benefits unless the workers are lucky enough to be in a union. Once injured, workers turn to the medical profession for treatment which provides them with a pain drug designed to create dependency by and profits for the pharmaceutical companies that make them. Eventually, many of these workers die of an opioid overdose basically driven by the corporate-medical system that has sucked them dry. Working in America.