Cocaine, drug use, drops among workforce

The annual Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index, compiled by Quest Diagnostics, was on 5.7 million urine samples, cocaine use in the U.S.
workforce dropped 29 percent last year compared to 2007. Methamphetamine use dropped 21 percent, but amphetamine use increased 12 percent.

Dr. Robert Willette, president of Duo Research and former chief of the Research Technology Branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said cocaine and methamphetamine use "declined sharply," amphetamine use increased, possibly due to increased prescriptions for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Overall, drug use among workers "has sustained a 19-year decline," Quest reported.

In 1988, when Quest began compiling the annual report, 13.6 percent of workers tested positive for drug use. By 2007, the figure dropped to 3.8 percent. Last year, 3.6 percent of drug tests among U.S. workers presented positive results.

"Experts credit effective drug testing programs with positively influencing worker behavior and, in recent years, have cited law enforcement's impact on the decreased availability and increasing costs of illicit substances as a factor in recent drug use declines," Quest said in a statement.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.