Unfortunately if you don't have marketable skills you need to pass a drug test, but if you can swing that there are many good jobs in the public sector, many of them union.

lie on your resume. people in my field do it all the time. you either can do the job or you can't and get fired in which case you lie on your resume and try again elsewhere

I'm in tech[derogatory] and the market now is still pretty bad for new entrant. I have friends with longer resumes than myself who are still looking after previous layoffs.

If you're good with people and leading, project/product managers can make as much as developers without needed to learn to code. It's stressful in It's own way of having to manage people's work and the success of projects but also not limited to tech so can be transferable. You could probably study for the PMP or scrum master certs to pad the resumes up and skip college

I'm a construction estimator, job postings will ask for a degree in construction management, engineering or 5-10 years experience in the trades. Easiest way to get this job is with field experience compared to an education. You do gotta prove to be somewhat intelligent, if you can show problem solving skills and adept blueprint reading someone will hire you.

The IT support desk is the new mailroom as the place where you can start and work your way up. You don't need to know IT to start and a lot of places will have you only walking users through the easy calls (password resets) and passing anything more complex to senior. Ngl, a degree will help you immensely, but you might find a company that will help you with that.