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Facts And Statistics Don’t Lie

The following are statistics as they relate to the Drug Testing industry.  The numbers are overwhelming and conclude that every employer should incorporate a substance abuse testing program to ensure a happy, healthy and safe workplace.  

Drug-using employees are two times more likely to request early dismissal or time off, three times more likely to have absences of eight days or more, three times more likely to be late for work, four times more likely to be involved in a workplace accident and five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim.

Of the 20.6 million adults classified with substance dependence or abuse, 12.7 million (61.5 percent) were employed full-time.8 Furthermore, among the U.S. working age population (ages 18-64) diagnosed with a substance use disorder, 62.7 percent were employed full-time.9  

The 2007 Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index shows that positive methamphetamine tests have decreased, it also indicates that the use of amphetamine in the general workforce has increased slightly, by about five percent.  

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported a total of 5080 methamphetamine lab seizures in 2007- a daily average of 14.

About 30 percent of Americans report having some form of alcohol use disorder at some point in their lifetimes, including 17.8 percent with alcohol abuse and 12.5 percent with alcohol dependence, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

An estimated 3.1 percent of employed adults actually used illicit drugs before reporting to work or during work hours at least once in the past year, with about 2.9 percent working while under the influence of an illicit drug.