"Amphetamines Use Declined Significantly Among U.S. Workers in 2005"
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Quest Diagnostics, June 2006
Still the third most popular illegal drug among American workers behind marijuana and cocaine, methamphetamine may be on the decline.
A national workplace drug testing company demonstrated that drug tests that show positive results for methamphetamine use dropped in 2005 and fell even further in the first five months of 2006. New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics conducts over seven million random, accident, periodic and pre-employment drug tests each year. Their most recent report shows a 17-year low in positive drug test results of all controlled substances.
The report notes that in 2005, the incidence of amphetamines drug-test positives declined 8 percent among general U.S. workforce employees. Additionally, it found that etween January and May 2006, amphetamines drug-test positives among general U.S. workforce employees declined by 10 percent.
The study suggests that the decrease may be the result of increased efforts by federal, state and local authorities to shut down clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. Methamphetamine can be produced with a simple propane heat source and a potpourri of household products including Sudafed cold medicine, iodine and match book strike pads.
While the numbers show that drug use of all types is down among American workers, the methamphetamine results are not all that stellar. While two years of decrease usage is something the company is cheering, the results are merely a return to the 2002 levels after a 2003-05 spike.
Overall, the testing data indicated that workplace drug use fell to the lowest level since Quest Diagnostics began publishing the Drug Testing Index in 1988.
