A record number of American workers are cheating on their employers’ drug tests by falsifying urine samples or using other means to evade detection, according to a new study.
The percentage of employees who attempted to falsify workplace drug test results increased more than sixfold in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to Quest Diagnostics, a national drug testing company.
The increase in workers trying to hide their drug use comes as More and more states in the United States are legalizing recreational marijuana use. The changing legal environment and changing societal norms around cannabis use are forcing employers to review their drug testing policies. The primary purpose of employer-mandated drug testing is to ensure a safe workplace, while recreational drug use can also affect worker productivity.
“Staff drug testing exists because it is designed as a deterrent mechanism,” Dr. Suhash Harwani, senior scientific director of workforce health solutions at Quest, told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s why it was founded: to ensure safety in the workplace.”
Quest’s analysis of laboratory data also found that the drug positivity rate for the overall U.S. workforce remained at an all-time high of 4.6 percent, down from a low of 3. 5% between 2010 and 2012.
Since April 2024, leisure marijuana is legal in 24 statesor nearly half the country, according to the Pew Research Center.
How workers cheat
Workers typically used one of two methods to defeat an employer’s drug testing protocols: replacing their urine samples with synthetic formulas or even animal urine, or submitting invalid samples, suggesting that They had been falsified in order to hide their drug use.
“Given the increasing acceptance and use of certain drugs, particularly marijuana, it is not surprising that some people feel the need to try to cheat on a drug test,” said Dr Harwani in a statement. “It is possible that the normalization of drug use in our society is fostering environments in which some employees believe it is acceptable to use such drugs without truly understanding the impact they have on workplace safety.”
Some experts have expressed concern about the findings, saying they highlight the need to improve drug testing policies and procedures.
“Drug testing is an important tool employers have to keep everyone in communities safe,” Katie Mueller, senior program manager at the National Safety Council, told CBS MoneyWatch. “When policies and procedures fail or people decide to change their tests for whatever reason, it puts everyone at risk.”
Regarding the growing campaign for cannabis legalization, Mueller added that “we need to have a really open dialogue with employees, employers and legislators about the impacts of legalization and how it plays out in the workplace.” .
Dr. Harwani said there might be better ways to test employees and job applicants for drug use than relying on urine samples. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently approved saliva testing to detect drug use, in addition to the use of urine samples.
While urine samples are placed in a private area, oral phlebotomy is collected directly by laboratory technicians. And while drugs may take time to show up in a donor’s urine sample, they can be detected in saliva immediately after use.
Grub5
