Positive Marijuana Tests Are Up Among U.S. Workers

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Positive marijuana tests rose in 2020 among U.S. job seekers and employees against a backdrop of expanding legalization, while the overall share of positive drug tests plateaued https://on.wsj.com/3yEm4Wl

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WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE | MANAGEMENT & CAREERS

Positive Marijuana Tests Are Up Among U.S. Workers

Percentage of job seekers, employees shown to be using the drug climbs as legalization expands

By Matt Grossman

https://twitter.com/mattgrossman
[e-mail]

May 26, 2021 6:00 am ET

The coronavirus pandemic shook up the U.S. employment picture last year, but one trend persisted: a rising share of workers who test positive for marijuana.

The proportion of U.S. workers who tested positive for marijuana in urine climbed higher in 2020 while the overall share of positive drug tests plateaued last year, according to Quest Diagnostics Inc., DGX +0.89% one of the largest drug-testing laboratories in the U.S. About 2.7% of the approximately seven million drug tests Quest conducted on behalf of employers came back positive for marijuana—up from 2.5% in 2019 and 2% in 2016.

Overall, the percentage of working Americans testing positive for any drug was 4.4%, little changed from 2019, when the rate of positive urine-based drug tests hit its highest level in 16 years. Though federal and state data indicate drug overdoses and abuse have risen during the pandemic, Quest officials say that isn’t captured in their data because many overdose victims likely weren’t subject to workplace drug testing last year.

Drug tests often occur for new-hire candidates, as part of random-testing programs or following an accident or suspicions of drug use. ... Positive marijuana tests have climbed among American workers as more states have allowed marijuana for medical and recreational use in recent years. Seventeen states have passed legalization measures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures—including, most recently, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Arizona.

{snip}

Write to Matt Grossman at [e-mail]

[WA-03 Democrat]

1. I think the better term would be "higher"

Than “up.”

[Chainfire]

2. A few miles down the road from me is a large grow and packing operation.

I get high just driving by the place. Local merchants are complaining about the workers in the place reeking so bad when they come in after their shifts. I was told that the workers have to carry a card to show the police if they get stopped in a traffic stop, to keep from having their cars tossed. Now, back in the day, I did smoke the stuff, and I did inhale...deeply. But the smell for a half mile on either side of the plant reminds me of a skunk.

[Warpy]

4. I know that smell. I knew some hydroponic farmers back in Mass.

many years ago and the highway would smell illegal for a quarter mile on either side of their place. I don't find it all that objectionable, but I'd spent my childhood around steel mills, meat processors, paper mills, and other redolent enterprises. Pot aint perfume, but it's really not that bad as industrial stinks go.

It was a small town, everybody knew but they never posed a problem to anyone so the cops left them alone.

[Warpy]

3. That test has always been totally useless

since it detects THC that had been ingested up to a month earlier. It doesn't indicate intoxication or even recent use. It should have been discarded years ago, it is total garbage.

Of course there are more job applicants who test positive. More states have approved cannabis for recreational use. Duh.

[jimfields33]

5. I would think that in states where it's legal, it wouldn't matter

Employers can’t hold that against you. I can see testing other drugs and possibly stop employment but not marijuana.

[getagrip_already]

6. you would think, but it isn't so....

In MA for example, we are fully rec legal. We can grow, carry, consume and even gift cannabis.

But employers are shielded from any restrictions on employee testing or discipline. They can and do terminate employees in the private sector based on positive cannabis tests. And then there is the federal testing programs for dot, marine, aviation, security clearance, or other licenses......

There is no legal remedy an employee can pursue.

[jimfields33]

9. That is a wake up for me.

I’m actually amazed.

[Warpy]

7. Corporate drones learn v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y

and it d0esn't even matter if the cannabis has been prescribed medically. Qualified job applicants are just turned down. Richard Nixon's evil is still going strong.

I could see it if it measured acute intoxication and people were tested after accidents and the like. But it doesn't. It's only used as a tool of corporate control and general idiocy.

[getagrip_already]

11. not just corporate drones unfortunately.....

When my town had a debate on banning dispensaries, the nimby brigade was out with pitchforks. People got up and said outright lies about cannabis, describing it as a gateway drug and pure evil that will kill their kids.

They won the day. It even covers medical dispensaries. They not only didn't want it in our town, they didn't want it anywhere.

It was scary how against it they were.

[ShazamIam]

8. I lived in a CA coastal community before we legalized and used to smirk often every fall when

driving around the mountain community I lived in. The smell of butter being made was stronger than the smells of the grows and the local Costco would not only increase the cost per lb of butter but run out of butter during the cooking season.

[Midnight Writer]

10. I saw the FBI is having trouble finding qualified computer security experts who haven't smoked pot.

Part of their interview process is asking "Have you ever smoked pot?" and "Have you ever done an illegal hack?"

We are losing the cream of the crop.

Lots of computer "geeks" start off in computer gaming, where smoking pot and hacking games is not uncommon.

[getagrip_already]

12. So where is Biden in the process to reschedule out of schedule 1?????

No matter what you think of Cannabis legalization, it doesn't belong in Schedule 1, which basically states that drugs in the group have no medically redeeming value.

It is only there because nixon wanted to hurt the "hippies and greasers" that aligned with the dems.