When you go to a boomtown like Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta, you can make a lot of money fast. You can go from almost nothing to owning your own company and living life large in 2 or 3 years. The problems of sudden wealth and long hours are not without dangers though. Since I wrote a spot about the need for drug rehab programs for the rapidly growing drug addiction problem in Fort McMurray, I have recieved calls detailing some of the extent on how drugs can undermine hardworking, focused, young people and destroy their lives. Things like working 28 days in a row for months to build a small successful company. Having growth and new employees join them. Then all destoyed by crack cocaine and meth. From profits to big debts in 6 months.
My interest in the drug addiction problem is two fold. One is purely from the point of veiw of finding drug rehab for everyone, where ever they are. The second is that Fort McMurray shows just how vulnerable we all are to addiction. Many of the people getting in trouble in Fort McMurray are NOT people stuck in a slum with no job and no hope. They are very hard working, very independant people. Drug addiction strikes people at vulneralbe moments in their life. It is not just about vulnerable people.
