Workplace drug use hits lowest on recordSurvey released Wednesday reveals drug use at lowest level since company began keeping records in 1988.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Drug use in the workplace sank to the lowest level in 18 years in 2006, according to the nation's biggest maker of workplace drug-testing kits. Quest Diagnostics said Wednesday that its Drug Testing Index showed workplace drug use to be at its lowest level since 1988, the year the Lyndhurst, N.J., company began compiling the measure. Quest performed more than 9 million workplace drug tests last year. Of those workers tested, 3.8 percent had positive results, a drop from the 4.1 percent figure from 2005 and down from a high of 13.6 percent the year the testing began. Quest (Charts) is the nation's largest employment drug testing provider. The index showed that amphetamine use fell 20 percent among federally regulated safety workers and 12.5 percent in the work force overall. Positive tests for marijuana dropped 6.3 percent, Quest said. The sharp decline comes amid greater vigilance by employers in their use of drug testing, as well as the tendency of drug users to avoid employers using vigorous testing procedures, said Barry Sample, director of science and technology for Quest. Since the study began, the percentage of people testing positive has failed to drop only twice. Marijuana has consistently been the drug of choice for those who test positive, followed by cocaine. An expert in workplace drug testing found reason to cheer Quest's numbers. But he noted the company fails to test for the most prevalent drug found in the workplace, alcohol. "We've done a better job in terms of educating the public, we've done a better job in terms of education in the workplace, and we've done a better job of providing treatment and recovery services," said Robert Lindsey, president and CEO at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in New York. But he cautioned that while the numbers on substances like marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines and opiates are encouraging, the index fails to measure how much impact alcohol abuse has in the workplace. "The caution I have in regard to the data is the fact that the No. 1 drug problem in the workplace always was and always will be alcohol," Lindsey said. "The tests that Quest runs are specific to the drug categories you see in the report, which excludes alcohol. That's a very important reminder." He also noted that the reason marijuana is the most commonly found illicit drug is because it takes the longest to metabolize, staying in the user's system for up to 60 days. Anheuser-Busch (Charts), Molson Coors Brewing (Charts), Boston Beer (Charts) and Diageo Plc (Charts) of Britain are among the biggest producers of beer and other alcoholic beverages. --------------------------------------------- |
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