Apr 14, 2019 <\/p>\n
Uh-Oh! Drug use is on the rise in the workplace<\/strong><\/p>\n This past week, Quest Diagnostics<\/strong> (NYSE:DGX<\/a>), a leading diagnostic testing firm, and the company responsible for testing millions of Americans a year in the workplace for illicit substances, released its latest analysis<\/a>, known as the Drug Testing Index, on workplace drug usage. Having tested more than 10 million urine samples in 2018, Quest found that 4.4% resulted in a positive test, which includes a combination of illicit (i.e., illegal) drugs and prescription medicines. This 4.4% workforce positivity rate is a 14-year high, and it’s a 25% increase from the all-time low of 3.5% recorded between 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n What’s driving higher workplace drug use? According to data from Quest Diagnostics, it’s not oxycodones, opiates, heroin, or cocaine. For the general population and safety-sensitive workers (e.g., truck or bus drivers, mechanics, pharmacists, nurses, and so on), usage of these illicit and\/or prescribed medications has fallen or been relatively steady between 2012 and 2018.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, amphetamine and marijuana use has risen significantly over the same period. Just over 1% of the general population now tests positive for amphetamines, up from just under 1% in 2012. But the biggest increase is seen with the cannabis positivity rate, which has increased by 40% between 2012 and 2018 to 2.8% among the general population. It rose ever so slightly to 0.88% from 0.84% for safety-sensitive workers between 2017 and 2018. Combining the two categories, the national positivity rate in the workforce for urine tests was 2.3% last year. <\/p>\n Should we be blaming cannabis for this increase?<\/strong><\/p>\n Just as concerning is that positivity following an accident has been increasing substantially. As Quest noted, “In the federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce, positivity for post-accident urine testing jumped more than 51% year over year (3.1% in 2017 versus 4.7% in 2018) and increased by nearly 81% between 2014 and 2018.” But the report is clear that prescription opiates were the primary driver in 2018.<\/p>\n This, of course, isn’t the case with a handful of recent state-level studies. One 2018 study from the Highway Loss Data Institute finds that while fatalities aren’t necessarily up as a result of cannabis use, crashes in recreationally legal states are. In Washington, Oregon, and Colorado, crash statistics have risen as much as 6% since weed was fully legalized. <\/p>\n