Of the 9.6 million workers who submitted to urine tests last year, 4 percent tested positive for an illicit substance, according to drug-testing analysis from Madison, New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.
Over the past decade, drug use rates had been steadily declining, hitting a 10-year low of 3.5 percent in 2010 and 2011 before the rate began to climb again in 2012. The post-accident positivity rate has also increased 30 percent since 2011.
The increase in drug abuse by workers is not surprising in the context of the opioid epidemic sweeping the country.
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In what could potentially be viewed as evidence of progress in the fight against opioid abuse, the 2015 drug analysis showed a drop in positive results for prescription painkillers. In the past few years, as a result of pressure from political leaders and law enforcement, as well as the realization that many painkiller prescriptions were doing more harm than good, doctors have become much more reluctant to prescribe powerful opioids for pain.
The bad news, however, is that the decline in prescription abuse has corresponded to an uptick in workers testing positive for heroin. Many who begin with opioid pills eventually move on to heroin, which is cheaper, and in many cases, easier to obtain.
Attitudes about drug use have begun to change in recent years for a number of reasons. Tolerance of marijuana has increased and led to the drug's legalization in a number of states. In addition, political leaders and the public have begun to shift toward treatment-based approaches to the abuse of hard drugs.
The numbers are conflicting, but it appears clear that the percentage of employers requiring drug tests for employees has declined in recent years.
Surveys conducted by the American Management Association throughout the 1990s found a steady decline, from a high of 81 percent in 1996 to 62 percent in 2004, the last year the group conducted the survey. A separate survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 78 percent of employers said they screened at least some employees for drug use.
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