Quest Diagnostics, which provides employer drug testing, recently completed a study on pre employment testing that found fewer U.S. employees and job applicants are using certain drugs, although the use of some other drugs has increased.

The study found that in 2008, fewer employees and job applicants used cocaine compared to 2007, but more used amphetamines. More employees have been testing positive for the use of prescription drugs like benzodiazepines, an anti-anxiety medication, and oxycodone, a painkiller.

According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, one problem with the study is that it is unable to differentiate whether or not job applicants and employees are using the drugs appropriately or abusing them.

Overall, Quest Diagnostic's rate of positive drug tests for illegal substances has continued to steadily decrease during the last 20 years. Positive drug tests have decreased from 13.6 percent in 1988 to 2.6 percent in 2008.

Of the 5.7 million samples Quest Diagnostics took in 2008, only .41 percent were positive for cocaine, a 29 percent decrease from 2007. Of pre employment tests, 3.6 percent came back positive, while 5.3 percent of random tests came back positive. When tests were announced, 1.7 percent of pre employment tests came back positive and 1.4 percent of random tests came back positive.

“While we’re encouraged by some of these declines we’re seeing, it really is reflective to a large extent that these employers conduct employee screening in the first place,” Barry Sample, director of science and technology for the employer solutions division of Quest, said in the article.

Labels: Pre employment testing