What You Need to Know About the Future of Workplace Testing
How evolving cannabis laws are impacting workplace safety protocols and why maintaining and updating rigorous drug testing remains essential for employers across various industries.
- By Katherine Miller
- Jun 11, 2024
It should come as no surprise that employers are concerned about workplace safety, often turning to drug and alcohol testing to help assuage those fears. A recent survey of U.S. employers found that 44 percent reported concerns about workplace safety due to cannabis legalization, and 86 percent of employers reported a belief that drug testing increased the safety of the workplaces. With the rising popularity of cannabis and other drugs, some employers question if it is worth continuing to drug test, particularly for cannabis. While workplace drug and alcohol testing offer many benefits, perhaps the most pertinent is helping to maintain a safe workplace.
Of major concern for many employers is cannabis. Why? First, not only is cannabis rising in popularity, it is also rising in potency. From 1995 to 2021, THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, rose in seized samples from 3.96 percent to 15.34 percent. Second, 15 percent of Americans 12 and older report using cannabis in the past month. Third, workplace cannabis-positive tests are on the rise. 2022 saw a 7.3 percent cannabis positivity rate for post-accident urine tests, following a steady increase over the prior 10 years.
Cannabis in the Workplace: Statistics
A recent study found that approximately 60 percent of the 46 million Americans struggling with a substance-use disorder have a job. In the same year, 4.3 percent of all non-mandated urine tests perform by one large national lab were positive for cannabis. As of January 2024, 24 states and D.C. permit recreational cannabis use and 38 states and D.C. permit medical cannabis use, though not all have programs that are currently up and running. Currently, cannabis is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States.
Increasingly, states are limiting employer’s rights to test for cannabis under certain circumstances, making some employers question the need for continued cannabis testing. With cannabis use becoming more popular, it is more imperative than ever that employers are aware of the signs and symptoms of cannabis use and continue testing for its presence in the workplace, when permissible.
Why Drug Test?
Drug testing provides pertinent information that is accessible only as a result of testing. The removal of cannabis from a testing panel removes access to information that impacts the safety of the workplace as a whole. Continued drug testing is a single data point of assessment that provides employers with information such as:
This article originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.