Failed marijuana tests after job accidents hit new high

Legal marijuana appears to have played a role in the number of workers testing positive after on-the-job accidents hitting a 25-year high, according to a new analysis.

Drug-testing laboratory Quest Diagnostics reported Thursday that 7.3% of employees failed a urine test for marijuana following an accident last year, an increase of 9% compared to 6.7% of workers in 2021. (Besides pre-employment drug screening, employers routinely conduct post-accident testing to evaluate whether drug use played a role in on-the-job injuries.)

The new peak caps a trend of steady annual increases in post-accident positive test results for marijuana from 2012 to 2022 — a period coinciding with states legalizing recreational cannabis that began with Colorado and Washington in 2012, the New Jersey company noted.

Twenty other states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use since 2012, while 38 states plus the District have authorized medical use. Both uses remain illegal under federal law.

The other states that have legalized recreational marijuana: California, Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Maine, Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Michigan, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Missouri and Virginia. 

“Changing societal attitudes about marijuana may be impacting workplace behaviors and putting colleagues at risk,” said Keith Ward, a general manager and vice president at Quest.
The Washington Times reached out for comment to government officials in D.C. and several states where recreational marijuana is legal.

The Quest report is only correlative and does not prove that pot caused the workplace accidents, said Demitri Downing, founder of the Marijuana Industry Trade Association, or MITA.

“Just because people are testing positive doesn’t mean it’s causing workplace accidents,” Mr. Downing told The Times. “Of course more people are going to test positive in a world where marijuana use is now accepted.”

Quest based its drug testing index report on more than 10.6 million de-identified urine, hair and oral-fluid drug test results reported between January and December 2022.

According to the company, marijuana led the way as 4.6% of the combined national workforce failed a pre-employment or post-accident test for any drug last year, the highest level in two decades. The 2021 and 2022 positivity rates were the highest since 2001 and increased more than 30% from an all-time low in 2010-2012.

“State legalization of the drug creates new challenges for employers,” said Katie Mueller, a cannabis safety expert at the National Safety Council. “The Quest data provide compelling evidence that increased use of cannabis products by employees can contribute to greater risk for injuries in the workplace.”

Amphetamines also played a role in the increase, the analysis found.

Among workers who failed urine tests in all circumstances, and not merely after accidents, positivity for marijuana increased by 10.3% from 3.9% in 2021 to 4.3% in 2022. Positivity for amphetamines — stimulants that come in both prescription and illicit forms — increased by 15.4% from 1.3% to 1.5% over the same period. 

Drug positivity rates climbed in most industry sectors from 2018 to last year, Quest noted. Accommodation and food service workers led the way with a 42.9% increase, followed by a 42.6% surge among retail workers and a 38.5% spike among finance and insurance employees.

Failed drug tests even increased from 2021 to last year among federally mandated workers such as airline pilots whose behavior could harm consumers as well as coworkers, Quest reported.

“Safety-sensitive jobs, like pilots and some federal positions, carry responsibilities that have higher potential risk of harm to public safety than most private-sector jobs,” said Suhash Harwani, Quest’s senior director of science. “Employers need help identifying individuals who are capable, competent and fully focused to perform their duties – and it is discouraging to see such a steep increase in drug positivity for workers in safety-sensitive roles.”