William Simpson
Record numbers of U.S. workers are cheating on employers’ drug tests, tampering with urine samples or using other means to avoid detection, new research says show.
The percentage of employees who attempted to falsify workplace drug test results increased more than sixfold in 2023 from the previous year, according to Quest Diagnostics, a national drug testing company.
The increase in workers trying to hide their drug use appears as More states in the US legalize recreational marijuana use. The changing legal environment and social norms surrounding cannabis use are forcing employers to review their drug testing policies. The main purpose of employer-required drug testing is to ensure a safe workplace, while recreational drug use can also affect worker productivity.
“Workforce drug testing exists because it is intended to be a deterrent mechanism,” Dr. Suhash Harwani, senior director of science for workforce health solutions at Quest, told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s why it was founded – to ensure safety in the workplace.”
Quest’s analysis of laboratory data also found that the drug positivity rate for the overall U.S. workforce remained at a record high of 4.6%, up from a low of 3.5% between 2010 and 2012.
In April 2024, recreational activities marijuana is legal in 24 statesor nearly half the country, according to the Pew Research Center.
How Workers Cheat
Workers typically used one of two methods to thwart an employer’s drug testing protocols: replacing their urine samples with synthetic formulas or even animal urine, or submitting invalid samples, suggesting they had been tampered with to conceal drug use.
“Given the growing acceptance and use of some drugs, especially marijuana, it may not be surprising that some people find it necessary to try to cheat on a drug test,” Dr. Harwani said in a statement. “It is possible that the normalization of drug use in our society is fostering environments in which some employees feel it is acceptable to use such drugs without truly understanding the impact they have on workplace safety.”
Some experts expressed concern about the findings, saying they underscore the need to improve drug testing policies and procedures.
“Drug testing is an important tool employers have to keep everyone in communities safe,” Katie Mueller, senior program manager at the National Safety Council, told CBS MoneyWatch. “When policies and procedures fail or people make decisions to change their testing for any reason, it puts everyone at risk.”
Regarding the growing push to legalize cannabis, Mueller added that “we need to have a really open dialogue with employees, employers and legislators about the impacts of legalization and how it is reaching the workplace.”
Dr. Harwani said there could be better ways to test employees and job applicants for drug use than relying on urine samples. For example, the US Department of Transportation recently approved oral fluid tests to detect drug use in addition to the use of urine samples.
While urine samples are submitted in a private space, oral fluids are collected directly by laboratory technicians. And while medications may take some time to show up in a donor’s urine sample, they can be detected in saliva immediately after they are used.
