Does Your Bakken Crew Need Drug Testing?

Busts in the past six months have put yet another spotlight on drug use and trafficking issues in the Bakken.

Late last year in Billings, Mont., a dozen people were indicted on federal charges alleging they were involved in a ring that distributed methamphetamines in the Bakken oil patch and in other cities and towns across Montana. The state’s attorney general said the drug ring sought to exploit the Bakken’s booming economy, but it was broken up by authorities working to curtail rising crime rates in the oil patch. And with those in the drug trade recognizing the Bakken as a fresh opportunity, authorities vow those investigations will continue.

According to BakkenBlog.com, drug testing is required during the hiring process by almost all employers in North Dakota (and other Bakken states), and often, drug testing is done randomly, as well. Third-party companies such as Bakken Staffing conduct such screenings. Still, testing alone hasn’t seemed to quell the persistent problems.

The problem is overwhelming, says Laura McRae, founder of the Web portal Synergy Station. She says Billings is like a gateway community.

“It’s almost like a perfect storm coming together,” she says, echoing that the combination of loneliness, long hours, lots of money and not enough community activities is a recipe for such issues. “Down time is not a productive time,” she says.

In addition, “when these guys get injured, they self-medicate,” she says.

Her son Jonathan McRae, 25, worked for three years in the Bakken, so he’s seen firsthand the hold drugs can have on some young workers.

“It’s emotionally wearing,” he says. “It’s a really demanding work environment.”

Some workers — especially young employees away from home for the first time experiencing a flush of freedom — might not be able to handle the temptations.

“You have unlimited disposable income,” he says. “Plus there’s just nothing to do; idle hands with disposable income is a recipe for disaster.”

That’s doesn’t mean all Bakken workers fall victim to drugs, of course. He notes he was able to resist when approached by a rig hand to take drugs, but it’s not easy.

“You pretty much have to maintain constant self-discipline,” he says. Energy drink consumption, although not illegal, is through the roof, he adds and says that, often, alcohol consumption is, too.

He believes major employers in the Bakken do use drug testing and other methods to try to alleviate the drug problems. “Many of the clients they work with don’t put up with drug use. They’re so safety conscious. I think a lot of them make some pretty good strides, but sometimes, there’s not really anything in place.”

Even some newspapers have reported the Bakken region can now only be reactive to drug issues, since the proactive approach doesn’t seem to be working.

North Dakota Attorney General Timothy Purdon was quoted on a Montana news website noting, “The oil patch in Montana and South Dakota has been saying for a couple of years that they are in a 100 percent reactive mode, and they’re no longer able to perform some of the proactive police work necessary to counter organized drug trafficking and other organized crime.”

The nonprofit Rimrock Foundation in Billings, the state’s only private treatment center, has been around for 45 years. It offers treatments, programs and options for those with substance abuse.

Malcolm Horn, Rimrock’s director of clinical supervision, says they have seen a few workers from the Bakken — all who came on their own, not sent by an employer. Among the issues have been abuse of methamphetamines, opiates and other highly addictive drugs.

She says young kids who come to the area are making large sums of money without any guidance and too much time on their hands, triggering increased drug abuse. “Maybe they have a high school diploma and are making $70,000 to $80,000 — using drugs is part of the culture. They are lonely and isolated, and they work long hours. A lot of our patients from the Bakken struggle with it.”

Like Jonathan McRae, Horn adds that “some bosses will care, but some don’t.” Many companies, she says, have in their mission statement that they support those with addiction problems. But the surroundings and situation don’t embrace that mission.

“There is not a sober enclave,” she says. “There isn’t a place for them to go if they want to be sober.”

Even if employers recognize abuse and offer to get a worker help, Horn says it frequently fails. “When you come back, you’re in the same environment,” she says. “It’s just like any addict. If you go on a diet, then you go to the office, they have cookies.”

Despite the stronghold of drug cartels, law enforcement is trying to make a dent in the issues as part of a collaborative effort. At the end of last year, Project Safe Bakken was founded to detect, disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations in the Bakken, according Michael Cotter, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana.