Constructive drug assessments in U.S. workforce rise to 20-year excessive as marijuana is legalized
As some states have moved to legalize leisure marijuana, the general workforce drug check positivity charge has climbed to a slender, two-decade excessive throughout employees in all sectors, in line with an evaluation by Quest Diagnostics.
Damaged out by business, retail commerce had the best depend of constructive assessments for all medicine—not simply marijuana—in 2022 with 7.7%, adopted by lodging and meals providers (7.0%) and transportation and warehousing (5.3%). They have been adopted by development (4.7%), manufacturing (4.5%), and finance and insurance coverage (3.6%).
Positivity charges for marijuana within the basic U.S. workforce, primarily based on greater than 6.3 million urine assessments, continued an upward climb, rising to 4.3% in 2022—the best positivity charge ever reported within the research—over 3.9% in 2021 and a couple of.8% in 2018.
The numbers come from the most recent Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index (DTI) report. It covers the mixed U.S. workforce, which incorporates each the final U.S. workforce of largely company-policy testing by personal employers and in addition the federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce. These lined below obligatory testing guidelines embody federal staff and the transportation and nuclear energy industries, spanning employees comparable to pilots, truck drivers, and practice conductors.
Nonetheless, marijuana testing charges have been larger for these concerned in accidents, the Secaucus, New Jersey firm stated. In 2022, post-accident marijuana positivity of urine drug assessments within the basic U.S. workforce was 7.3%, in comparison with 6.7% in 2021. That follows a gradual improve in post-accident marijuana positivity yearly from 2012 to 2022, doubling over that 10-year time-frame.
These will increase in post-accident marijuana positivity correspond with legalization of marijuana in sure states, Quest stated. In 2012, Colorado and Washington turned the primary states to legalize marijuana for leisure use. Since then, 19 further states and the District of Columbia have legalized the leisure use of marijuana and 38 states (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized medical use, though both type of use stays unlawful below federal legislation.
Taking a look at a wider spectrum of drug use, the mixed U.S. workforce urine drug positivity in 2022 for all medicine continued at 4.6% – the best degree in twenty years. The 2021 and 2022 positivity charges have been the best since 2001, up greater than 30% from an all-time low in 2010-2012.
Whereas marijuana was the principle driver of workforce positivity will increase within the basic U.S. workforce, amphetamines positivity additionally contributed to the rise. Positivity for marijuana within the basic U.S. workforce elevated by 10.3% (to 4.3% in 2022 versus 3.9% in 2021) and amphetamines positivity elevated by 15.4% (1.5% in 2022 versus 1.3% in 2021). Whereas that amphetamines knowledge doesn’t differentiate between prescribed medicines and illicit drug use, the rise correlates with different knowledge suggesting that the usage of amphetamines, prescribed or illicit, has grown lately within the U.S., Quest stated.
