Drug Use Hits New Low Among U.S. Workers
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Quest Diagnostics, March 2007
A study by Quest Diagnostics, a leading provider of employment-related drug testing services, finds that over a period of 18 years (from 1988 to 2006), positive results in drug tests for amphetamines as well as marijuana have reached a new low among the general U.S. workforce. The finds are part of Quest Diagnostics' annual Drug Testing Index.
The 2006 Drug Testing Index showed that positivity for amphetamines declined 20 percent to hit to a new low level among federally mandated, safety-sensitive workers. Among the general workforce, positivity for amphetamines declined more than 12 percent. In addition, the number of positive tests for marijuana, as a percent of the total number of tests for the drug, was down 6.3 percent among the U.S. general workforce compared to 2005. Quest Diagnostics' 2006 Drug Testing Index summarizes the results of more than nine million workplace drug tests performed by the company between January and December 2006.
Notably, data indicated that drug use by employees and applicants fell to the lowest level since Quest Diagnostics began publishing the Drug Testing Index in 1988. Of all urine workplace drug tests performed by the company during 2006 for the combined U.S. workforce, 3.8 percent had positive results, compared to 4.1 percent in 2005 and 13.6 percent in 1988.
Barry Sample, director of science and technology for Quest Diagnostics' Employer Solutions division, said in a news release that he believes the continued decline in workforce drug positivity may be driven by two factors: increased employer vigilance about the impact of workplace drug abuse on liability and the cost of decreased productivity, and the possibility that those who abuse drugs may tend to avoid employment at companies that actively conduct drug testing. Quest Diagnostics also stated that data from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), presented by the Department of Health and Human Services, supports the idea that drug testing is a deterrent to employee drug use.
