One doesn’t need a clear head to have predicted this: As marijuana laws are relaxed in many of the states in the union, the number of workers getting high has gone sky high.
According to data crunched by Quest Diagnostics, while the number of American employees flunking a drug test remained steady last year, positive tests for marijuana from employees who were involved in on-site accidents have shot up to a 25-year high.
Positive tests from those involved in an accident at work jumped by 9% last year compared to 2021, and tripled between 2012 and 2022, as laws relaxed across the country.
According to the numbers from the drug screening company quoted by The Wall Street Journal, of the more than 6 million routine employment tests done in 2022, 4.3% came back positive, a jump from 3.9% in 2021. That’s the largest marijuana positivity rate since 1997 — incidentally, way before the drug had been largely decriminalized.
The data also showed positive tests for barbiturates and certain classes of opioids declined, but hits for amphetamines rose slightly to 1.5% in 2022; it was 1.3% in 2021.
So with weed — either recreational or medicinal — being legal in two-thirds of the country, and employees in demand, what’s an employer to do?
Some have opted to stop testing for marijuana altogether, the paper explains. For others, it depends on the gig.
Amazon, for example, only tests its employees who handle pharmaceuticals as part of their job, or if they’re involved in transportation for the online retail giant.