Wellness & Well-being Highlights July 21st

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of July 21, 2025

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog looks at how changes at OSHA will negatively impact workers—to the importance of proper-fitting PPE for women—to numerous garbage strikes across the USA. This week I would like to take a closer look at the NYT article on Meth and paying users to quit.

This past week, I spent time with James Pursell and Aaron Walsh at the annual LAP (Labor Assistance Professionals) conference in Nevada. As many of you may know, these 2 guys are Peer Supporters with the LEAN-STL program sponsored by the Health & Welfare3 Fund of Laborers Locals 42 & 110…and both are superstars in my book! Our typical days went like this: 2 presentations in the morning and 2 presentations in the afternoon. All topics were related to helping our union sisters and brothers (and their family members) deal with anything from substance use disorders to a variety of mental health issues.

So, what does this have to do with the aforementioned NYT article? Well, the one thing that was mentioned several times last week is that no two paths to sobriety are exactly the same…What worked for you may not for me! Accordingly, the following excerpt by NYT’s Hoffman caught my attention:

Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain.[1]

I recall reading a book a few years back that predicted the toll that today’s meth would eventually have on our society. That author proclaimed that the ‘shake and bake’ meth from decades ago produced a much safer product. Whereas, today’s product is mostly made on the industrial scale by Mexican drug cartels using industrial chemicals. This results in have devasting effects on one’s organs upon initial use. And, as noted above, we have no reversal drug for meth! Therefore, as the old saying goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

While some readers may disagree with paying people to get and stay sober, the other alternative is eventual death with the potential of collateral destruction along that journey. Please look around your town: Destruction takes on many forms…Who is that holding the sign at street corner? To this end, we need to consider factors well below the surface. Issues like adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and social determinates of health (SDoH) must be taken into account when considering solutions. To be sure, no 2 brains are alike.

Please check out the rest of this week’s blog: https://moworksinitiative.org/category/worker-wellness-news/

Source: [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/health/meth-addiction-treatment-contingency-management.html?smid=em-share

Use of Drugs @ Work

Meth: Paying Users to Quit?

Mexico / USA / Fentanyl Flow

OSHA / New Rules / Devalued Workers

SeaWorld / OSHA / Impact on Construction

AZ: Construction Suicides

TN: Rural Suicide Belt

UK Dads & Suicide Prevention

Suicide Prevention: Roles of HR & Mkt

Trump / 988 / LGBTQ+