Positive Drug Tests Among U.S. Workers Hit Two-Decade High

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/positive-drug-tests-among-u-s-workers-hit-
two-decade-high-11648603800

The percentage of working Americans testing positive for drugs hit a two-
decade high last year, driven by an increase in positive marijuana tests,
as businesses might have loosened screening policies amid nationwide labor
shortages.

Of the more than six million general workforce urine tests that Quest
Diagnostics Inc., one of the country’s largest drug-testing laboratories,
screened for marijuana last year, 3.9% came back positive, an increase of
more than 8% from 2020, according to Quest’s annual drug-testing index.

That figure is up 50% since 2017. Since then, the number of states that
legalized marijuana for recreational use grew to 18 from eight, plus the
District of Columbia.

Despite the increase in positivity last year, fewer companies tested their
employees for THC, the substance in marijuana primarily responsible for
its effects, than in recent years, said Barry Sample, Quest’s senior
science consultant.

The shifting legal backdrop and changing cultural attitudes have prompted
some employers to stop testing for marijuana while companies in some
states are barred from factoring the test results into hiring decisions,
according to Dr. Sample. And those trends accelerated last year amid the
recent shortage of workers, especially in states where recreational
marijuana is legal, Dr. Sample added.

“We’ve been seeing year-over-year declines in those recreational-use
states, but by far the largest drop we’ve ever seen was in 2021,” he said
about the number of drug tests that screened for THC.

The percentage of specimens tested for THC declined 6.7% nationwide in
2021 from 2020, while that figure fell by 10.3% in states where
recreational marijuana is legal, according to Quest’s data.

“We certainly heard from some of our employer customers that they were
having difficulty finding qualified workers to pass the drug test,” Dr.
Sample said of pre-employment tests for THC, especially in states where
use of the drug is legal.

Overall, the proportion of U.S. workers who tested positive for the
various drugs Quest screened for in 2021 rose to 4.6%, the highest level
since 2001, according to Quest, which analyzed nearly nine million overall
urine tests last year on behalf of employers.

That percentage is more than 31% higher than the low of 3.5% a decade ago,
in the early days of a resurgent heroin epidemic in the U.S.

In Michigan, where recreational marijuana was legalized in 2018, many
employers didn’t loosen their requirements on pre-employment drug tests
for a few years, according to Tammy Turner, co-owner of Kapstone
Employment Services, a Detroit-based staffing agency.

But during the pandemic and the related labor shortages, Kapstone, which
works mostly with manufacturers that supply the Big Three car makers,
encouraged regional employers to loosen their THC-screening policies for
many positions.

“So many of our clients were adamant, in pre-Covid, that they would not
accept anyone that could not pass a drug test, even if it was THC,” Ms.
Turner said. “We had to encourage some of them to reassess their policy,
and they did, and we were able to fill many of those jobs as a result.”

For certain positions, such as those that involve heavy machinery,
Kapstone still screens applicants for THC and other drugs, as required by
the federal government, said Kerry Buffington, co-owner of the company.

Ms. Buffington and Ms. Turner said they don’t see any of the companies
they work with reverting to their pre-pandemic hiring standards even if
the labor shortage eases.

Marijuana use has become so casual among some young workers that Ms.
Turner said some potential workers have shown up to her office smelling
like the drug, and one worker who was placed by Kapstone got fired after
using a vape pen in the workplace. The firm has had to counsel some
workers on what is appropriate at work, Ms. Turner added.

In the hospitality industry, many employers had already stopped screening
potential employees for drugs, including marijuana, before the pandemic,
according to one representative for a hotel management company with
operations across the country, including in Georgia, Minnesota and
Colorado.

The representative said their company along with several of their industry
peers stopped conducting pre-employment drug tests in the past five years
because of the associated expenses and evolving legal landscape.

Chris Layden, senior vice president at staffing firm ManpowerGroup, said
the elimination of marijuana screening is one of the most common ways
companies are seeking to expand their pool of eligible workers.
ManpowerGroup estimated that drug testing eliminates about 5% of
candidates.

ManpowerGroup is seeing companies across nearly all industries, except for
financial services and federally regulated businesses, eliminate marijuana
testing requirements, Mr. Layden said.

Michelle Bearden, chief risk and operating officer for Houston-based
staffing and recruiting firm Link Staffing Services Inc., said she has yet
to see a strong reason why Link Staffing should move to loosen pre-
employment marijuana screenings before the federal government does. She
acknowledged the job market has been tight during the pandemic, but said
she doesn’t think nixing THC screenings is a good solution.

“[Marijuana] is still on the federal list of prohibited substances, and
that is what our policies are driven by at this point,” she said. “If I
see that there is an overwhelming reason or cause for us to change ahead
of that, we will.”

In Texas, Link Staffing, which mostly hires for the manufacturing and
distribution sectors in the Dallas and Houston areas, has made some
concessions to fill open roles amid the labor shortage, including by
easing background-check requirements, Ms. Bearden said.

And while it can still be tough to fill open roles, Link Staffing and the
employers it works with still view marijuana use as a deal breaker.

“We employ people in safety-sensitive jobs, and I think your employers
that operate workplaces with high safety concerns—it may still be part of
what they view as a hazard in the workplace, for people to be under the
influence of anything,” Ms. Bearden said.

Write to Will Feuer at will....@wsj.com



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