Across the United States, drug laws have changed dramatically in recent years. As a result, there have been several other laws and policies put in place to mitigate risks that drug use liberation may lead to. One of these initiatives is employee drug testing laws, varying per state and aiming to ensure safe and sober workplaces are the norm. Federal employees are currently covered under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. However, private employee coverage varies on a state-by-state basis.
Currently, the majority of states consider employee drug testing to be legal but with caveats. There are only 5 states that consider the practice fully legal, and 11 that have no laws pertaining to the practice at all. In order to manage these differences in legislation, there have been more than 500 bills related to drug testing introduced in the past year alone. These laws are changing fast, in an attempt to keep up with the drug use landscape and the mass legalization of marijuana in the United States in recent years.
Colorado and Washington were some of the first states to pioneer the legalization of recreational marijuana use. Now, 19 more states and DC have followed suit. For medical use, the substance is now legal in nearly 40 states, showing significant progress in the pursuit of drug use liberation. As a result, however, positive marijuana tests amongst working Americans has increased by almost 50% over the past 5 years. Experts warn that this could have serious implications for safety-sensitive industries. In fact, recreational marijuana laws are associated with a 10% increase in workplace injuries amongst young professionals.
In order to help support safe and sober work environments across the country, state, local and industry leaders are administering drug tests more frequently and cracking down on cheating during the testing process. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, there was a 6x increase in tampered test samples across all different testing types. From reasonable suspicion, return to duty, or even random testing, these new cheating policies are already being put into effect. With new technology now widely available, new state policies are promoting a crackdown on foul play during routine workplace drug testing.
There are currently ten US states that have anti-cheating policies in place, including states like Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Oregon. Oregon’s commitment is significant, as it is also a state that has been named on the list of states with the most positive drug tests, joining Maine, Louisiana, Alabama, Massachusetts and Vermont. Anti-cheating policies for drug testing now include detailed check-in times for testees, adulterant tests to catch foreign bodies, and dilution detection to ensure pure samples.
Leading industries around the country are also committing to testing their workforce regularly, especially those that suffer the most from impaired employees. Leading the charge are energy utilities and transportation and warehousing, producing drug positivity rates from 46.6% to 53.6%. Following closely behind are manufacturing, wholesale trade and construction. As the United States continues to move towards a more drug-tolerant climate, it is important for state and industry leaders to protect our most essential workers when they need it the most.
Source: USDrugTestCenters.com
