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Job applicants and workers already on the job are failing drug tests at a sharply higher rate this year, officials at Oregon's largest drug-testing labs say.
Oregon Medical Laboratories in Eugene, the state's largest clinical and workplace drug-testing laboratory, reports that its rate of positive employment-related tests jumped to 6.9 percent in the first six months of this year from 5.3 percent in the same period a year ago -- a more than 30 percent increase.

The laboratory processes about 150,000 workplace-related drug tests a year, including hiring and random tests. The lab's statistics omit tests from employers regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation, such as trucking firms, which have been required to randomly test workers for drugs since 1989 and have lower positive rates as a result.

Lab directors and other workplace consultants say they can't entirely explain the sudden jump in positive tests. But they speculate Oregon's rapidly growing economy is luring formerly unemployed drug users into new jobs.

"It could be we're seeing more people coming back into the labor force," said Art Ayre, an employment economist with the Oregon Employment Department. If so, employers are likely "pulling in more of those people on the margins who have been engaging in this type of activity," Ayre said.

Although Oregon's unemployment rate -- 6.7 percent in August -- is still the second highest in the nation, the state's job growth rate is also among the highest in the United States.

Others involved in the drug-testing business speculate that employers may be doing a better job of giving drug tests in ways that prevent workers' drug use from escaping detection.

"More employers are becoming a bit more capable of testing applicants without giving a large open time window to being tested," said Grant Beardsley, director of drug-testing services at Oregon Medical Laboratories.

Kent Johnson, director of Legacy Metrolab in Portland, the only other federally certified drug-testing laboratory in Oregon, said he also has seen a sharp increase this year, although he doesn't have exact numbers.

While marijuana remains the most frequently detected drug, showing up in more than half of all positive tests, methamphetamine appears to be the fastest-growing illegal drug of choice among workers. Johnson said positive test rates for amphetamines increased 15 percent between 2003 and 2004 among his lab's samples. Meth is the most widely used type of amphetamine.

Johnson said he thinks the rate will be higher again this year.

Methamphetamine is likely a bigger problem for employers in Oregon than other parts of the nation, experts say. In Oregon, amphetamines top cocaine as the second-most detected illicit substance, laboratory officials say. They rank third highest nationally behind cocaine, according to Quest Diagnostics, the nation's largest provider of employment drug tests.

Positive work-related test rates for meth in the first six months of this year ranged from 0.9 percent of all employment-related tests in Southern Oregon to 1.5 percent of all tests in the Portland area, Beardsley said.

Nationwide, positive rates for most major illicit drugs have been on the decline in recent years, thanks to effective drug-free workplace programs, experts say.

But amphetamines have been an exception. Five years ago, amphetamines showed up in one of every 400 workplace drug screens, Quest Diagnostics reported. Last year, they turned up in about one of every 200 tests, Quest said.

Lisa Neef, president of Arrive Staffing Resources Inc. in Portland and president-elect of the Oregon Staffing Association, said staffing agencies that specialize in placing lower-skilled, entry-level workers -- those working in industrial or warehouse settings -- report up to an 18 percent increase in their rates of positive drug tests by applicants.

Rates are much lower among agencies placing college graduates in high-tech engineering posts and other professional settings, but they are still higher than last year by 2 percent to 8 percent, Neef estimated.

Source: OregonLive.com

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