The Retail Trade industry saw the highest overall drug positivity rate at 7% and also saw a 55.6% increase in positive methamphetamine drug tests between 20.Įncouragingly, the positivity rates for heroin and other opioids over the past year decreased or stayed the same across all workforces. Accommodations and Food Services topped the lists with a 7.5 % marijuana positivity rate. Positive marijuana test results doubled or more than doubled in six of the seventeen industries tracked: Transportation and Warehousing Finance and Insurance Utilities Accommodations and Food Services Retail Trade and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. Over five years, positivity for marijuana in the general U.S. Positive urine drug tests for marijuana climbed to the highest rate ever recorded. Not surprisingly, positive marijuana test rates continue to increase. Although the overall positivity rates rose by only 1.8% since 2020, they were 12% higher than in 2017 and have risen steadily over the past five years. Of the seventeen industries tracked, all but mining saw an increase in overall positivity rates from 2017 to 2021. The study was based on more than 11 million urine, hair and oral fluid drug tests collected during calendar year 2021. Quest is a clinical laboratory chain that performs health screenings, as well as preemployment and post-accident drug and alcohol testing.According to a new Quest Diagnostic Study analyzing workplace drug test results in 2021, employers saw the highest rate of positive drug test results in twenty years. Quest’s Drug Testing Index is based on more than 11 million urine, hair, and oral fluid drug test results collected between January and December 2021. The retail trade industry had the highest overall positivity rate for all drugs in 2021 at 7%, an increase of 34.6% since 2017. The company finds a year-over-year rise in methamphetamine positivity in the retail trade over the same period-a 55.6% increase (0.09% in 2017 to 0.14% in 2021).

Quest notes a year-over-year decrease in positive test results for methamphetamine in health care and social assistance, decreasing by 50% over a 5-year period (0.18% in 2017 to 0.09% in 2021). Post-accident positivity was 316.7% higher for opiates (hydrocodone/hydromorphone) and 200% higher for oxycodones (oxycodone/oxymorphone) than in preemployment testing.

Accommodation and food service had the highest workforce positivity for marijuana at 7.5%, a relative increase of 114.3% over 5 years (3.5% in 2017 versus 7.5% in 2021), Quest’s analysis shows. Overall marijuana positivity increased in all industries and by double digits in 15 industries from 2017 to 2021. “The increase in post-accident positivity is alarming and suggests more drug-associated accidents may be occurring even with employers with pre-employment drug testing in place,” Barry Sample, PhD, senior science consultant for Quest, said in a statement. general workforce for marijuana was 63.4% higher and 266.7% higher for cocaine compared with preemployment testing, according to Quest. The positivity rate in post-accident urine testing in the U.S. Over 5 years, positivity for marijuana in the general U.S. workforce-based on more than 6 million urine tests-continued an upward climb, increasing 8.3% (3.6% in 2020 versus 3.9% in 2021), the highest positivity rate ever reported in Quest’s annual Drug Testing Index. Positivity rates for marijuana in the general U.S. The company also reports increases in positive test results among the general workforce. Positive results for marijuana increased 8.9% (0.79% in 2020 to 0.86% in 2021), positive test results for amphetamines increased 7.8% (0.64% in 2020 to 0.69% in 2021), and positive results for cocaine increased 5.0% (0.20% in 2020 to 0.21% in 2021). Moreover, overall positivity in the federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce, based on nearly 2.7 million urine drug tests, stayed even year over year (2.2% in both 20) but was 4.8% higher than in 2017 (2.1%), Quest adds.Īfter 5 years of steady declines in several drug categories, positivity rates based on urine drug tests for the federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce increased in 2021, the company reports.

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