--- title: Drug Usage: More American Workers Testing Positive description: More American workers are testing positive for drugs than they have in the past 12 years canonical: https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-18T15:33:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:00:04.283Z article:section: Health og:title: More Workers Are Testing Positive for Drugs Than in the Last 12 Years og:description: The U.S. workforce had its highest positive result rate since 2004 og:url: https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt198460db7bc0e3b9/6988cdd6196cf47b540402c4/gettyimages-167073407.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4957 og:image:height: 2788 og:image:alt: drug-testing-workers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Workers Are Testing Positive for Drugs Than in the Last 12 Years twitter:description: The U.S. workforce had its highest positive result rate since 2004 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt198460db7bc0e3b9/6988cdd6196cf47b540402c4/gettyimages-167073407.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Workers Are Testing Positive for Drugs Than in the Last 12 Years > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 18, 2017 3:33 PM UTC  Drug counsellor testing urine for traces of drugs. Drug counsellor testing urine for traces of drugs. Photograph by Photofusion—Getty/UIG by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra May 18, 2017 3:33 PM UTC More[ American workers ](http://time.com/money/4521151/job-outsourcing-report/)are testing positive for drugs than they have in the past 12 years. According to an [analysis from Quest Diagnostics](http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/physicians/health-trends/drug-testing), urine tests among the U.S. workforce had a positive result rate of 4.2%, the highest since 2004, when 4.5% of urine tests tested positive for drugs. This was also an increase of 5% from 2015 to 2016. Colorado and Washington, which were the first two states to [legalize marijuana](http://time.com/4728091/canada-legalizing-marijuana-united-states-weed-pot/), have outpaced the rest of the country’s average in the growing trend of positive drug test results for marijuana. Colorado saw an 11% increase and Washington saw a 9% increase in drug tests showing positive results for marijuana. The national average increased by just 4%. While marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine use yielded more positive drug-test results than years prior, [heroin](http://time.com/4715632/heroin-opioid-epidemic/) detection remained at the same rate. “This year’s findings are remarkable because they show increased rates of drug positivity for the most common illicit drugs across virtually all drug test specimen types and in all testing populations,” said Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology for Quest Diagnostics Employer Solutions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/"},"headline":"More Workers Are Testing Positive for Drugs Than in the Last 12 Years","datePublished":"2017-05-18T15:33:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:00:04.283Z","description":"The U.S. workforce had its highest positive result rate since 2004","url":"https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/","keywords":["Drugs","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt198460db7bc0e3b9/6988cdd6196cf47b540402c4/gettyimages-167073407.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt198460db7bc0e3b9/6988cdd6196cf47b540402c4/gettyimages-167073407.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"drug-testing-workers","caption":"Drug counsellor testing urine for traces of drugs.","creditText":"Photograph by Photofusion—Getty/UIG","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/drugs/","name":"Drugs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4784267/drug-testing-12-year-high/","name":"More Workers Are Testing Positive for Drugs Than in the Last 12 Years"}}]}] ```