“Particularly if you have employees that perform safety-sensitive or dangerous jobs, either driving vehicles or operating machinery, you want to ensure the safety of your employees and customers.” Other reasons to test include reducing injury risk, improving productivity, controlling insurance costs and reducing turnover, she added. “Employers conduct drug and alcohol tests on employees for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is safety,” said Kathryn Russo, a shareholder at Jackson Lewis. The rate for these drugs has more than doubled over the last decade-oxycodone use alone has gone up 71 percent since 2005-and are reflective of national prescribing trends that have come under recent scrutiny.Īccording to the National Drug-Free Workplace Alliance, 75 percent of the 17.5 million illicit drug users 18 and over are currently employed. Also troubling is the positivity rates for prescription opiates. workforce since 1997, from 0.3 percent to 0.9 percent in 2013. The positivity rate for amphetamines, including prescription medications such as Adderall, has nearly tripled in the general U.S. Positive rates for marijuana increased 20 percent in Colorado and 23 percent in Washington between 20, compared to a 5 percent increase on average among the U.S. public and private workforce, has fallen 74 percent to 3.7 percent in 2013, down from 13.6 percent in 1988.Ī deeper look at the data, however, reveals that despite the decline in overall drug use, positivity rates have increased for certain kinds of drugs.įor the first time since 2003, the rate of positive drug tests among workers went up in 2013, largely due to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington state in 2012, according to Quest Diagnostics. Quest Diagnostics’ 2013 Drug Testing Index indicated that the annual positivity rate for urinalysis drug tests, including both pre-employment and random testing for the combined U.S. workers in recent decades, however, certain kinds of drug use has gone up in the last 10 years, and most drug users are employed, according to industry experts. Data shows a dramatic decline in positive drug tests among U.S.
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