American workers are testing positive for marijuana following on-the-job accidents at the highest level in 25 years, according to a new report released on Thursday.
The report from Quest Diagnostics found that 7.3 percent of workers tested positive for marijuana after being involved in an accident at work in 2022, up from 6.7 percent in 2021. This was the highest positivity rate since 1997, the report noted.
Keith Ward, the general manager and vice president for employer solutions at Quest Diagnostics, said in a statement that the data suggested that “changing societal attitudes about marijuana may be impacting workplace behaviors and putting colleagues at risk.”
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have fully legalized the use of marijuana over the last decade, while 37 states and D.C. have approved the drug for medicinal use.
Marijuana use has increased overall among American workers, with positivity rates rising from 3.9 percent in 2021 to 4.3 percent in 2022, the report found. Workers also tested positive for amphetamines at a higher rate, increasing from 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent.
The rise in both marijuana and amphetamine use contributed to an overall increase in the drug positivity rate to 4.6 percent, a two-decade high, according to the report.
