Drug use down among U.S. workers, study shows

As efforts to control drug abuse across the U.S. continue to progress, a new study shows that drug use among American workers has “dramatically” dropped.

The study tracked downward trends in cocaine and methamphetamine use over a four-year period among workers and job applicants. Results were based on drug testing of hair and urine specimens, allowing scientists to gain a better short- and long-term understanding of employee drug use.

Testing of urine specimens can detect a single instance of drug use in the previous one to three days, while hair testing can detect a pattern of repetitive use over a period of up to 90 days.

“Hair has a longer memory than urine when it comes to finding patterns of drug use,” said Barry Sample, director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics’ Employer Solutions division.

While the report showed an overall downward trend in drug use, Sample said comparing hair and urine results revealed that there is more drug abuse among workers than indicated by urine tests alone.

“A person’s urine test results can be negative for a drug if he hasn’t used drugs in the past few days. But a hair test shows if he has used in the past three months or so. Hair tests are revealing positive results that urine tests do not show,” said Sample.

Employers that carry out drug testing programs do so for a variety of reasons, most often to protect the health and well-being of employees and avert the business risk associated with drug-induced judgments. Urine testing is the most common drug-screening method, but hair testing, a newer technology, has been gradually adopted over the past decade.

“Employers are finding that, like random urine drug testing, hair testing may be serving as a powerful deterrent to worker drug use,” said Sample.

This story provided by North American Precis Syndicate Inc.