Quest Releases Drug Testing Index Quest Diagnostics has recently released its anticipated Drug Testing Index. This index reviews results from over 9 million Quest workplace drug tests for the year of 2006. According to these results, drug use in 2006 was at the lowest levels among US workers since 1988. Decreasing positive results were found in both amphetamine drugs among safety-sensitive workers and marijuana use in the overall US workforce. More details on the Drug Testing Index can be found here.   Positive tests among workers surge 68 percent, report says The Associated Press Updated: 7:45 p.m. ET July 22, 2004 NEW YORK - Employers who screen job applicants and workers for drugs saw the number testing positive for methamphetamine surge 68 percent last year, according to the country's largest testing company. The report tallying the results of more than 7 million workplace drug tests performed by Quest Diagnostics Inc. ? showed a smaller rise in positives for opiates like heroin, as the overall number of workers failing tests stayed nearly unchanged at 4.5 percent. Quest has been conducting its annual survey since 1988, but has only broken it down by drug category and type of worker since 1997. The surge in the use of amphetamines, a crystalline stimulant often called "meth" or "ice," has prompted some states to try to limit sales of the decongestant pseudoephedrine commonly used to make it. While big labs, most in California, continue to supply most of the illegal methamphetamine consumed in the U.S., much of the growth has been fed by small, home labs. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration shut down 10,061 small meth labs, up from 8,063 in 2002. Marijuana still tops list The number of workers and job candidates testing positive for methamphetamine remains small compared to marijuana, by far the biggest reason that people fail employer drug screenings, the Quest figures show. About 3 of every 1,000 workers now test positive for meth, compared to about 3 of every 100 workers testing positive for marijuana. But while marijuana positives have stayed stable, amphetamine detection is soaring in the general work force. That contrasts with airline pilots, workers in nuclear plants and others whose tests are required by the government, for whom positive meth rates have increased only slightly. In the general work force, though, usage appears to be rising at an even faster rate than in the past few years, when annual increases in the number of positive drug tests ranged from 14 to 17 percent. Meth use spreads to Midwest and East Methamphetamine production and usage has its roots in southern California and was long most prevalent in western states. But DEA statistics and Quest testing data shows it has spread to the middle and eastern portions of the country. Quest found the number of workers testing positive for the drug increased sharply in southeastern states like Georgia and Alabama. Of the small labs broken up by the DEA last year, the largest number were in Missouri, with Tennessee and Arkansas also hotbeds of production. In addition to the rise in meth usage, Quest found that positive tests for opiates ? including both heroin and the painkiller morphine, which is contained in many prescription drugs ? are also rising, up 25 percent in 2003 for the general work force. Overall, the share of workers testing positive for all types of drugs remained nearly unchanged ? rising to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent. That is much lower than the 11 to almost 14 percent rate in the late 1980s, when employer drug tests were not as common. The number of workers testing positive has fluctuated below 5 percent for the last six years. Government plans broader drug screening   The Associated Press Updated: 6:50 p.m. ET Jan.14, 2004   NEW YORK - The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and sweat, a shift that could spur more businesses to revise screening for millions of their own workers. The planned changes, long awaited by the testing industry, reflect government efforts to be more cise in its drug screening and to outmaneuver a small but growing subset of workers who try to cheat on urine-based tests. Some businesses have already adopted alternative testing, despite criticism by privacy advocates. But others have held back, partly awaiting government standards. Alternative testing methods would give employers more certainty about the timing and scope of drug usage than is now possible solely with urine sampling, said Robert Stephenson II, an official with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). That could be particularly valuable in situations like investigations of on-the-job accidents, to determine not just whether an employee uses drugs but if usage occurred recently enough to be a cause. A bid to raise deterrence level Alternative testing will "really ramp up our ability to increase the deterrent value of our program, which is basically the whole bottom line," said Stephenson, director of the agency's Division of Workplace Programs. All federal workers are eligible to be tested. Stephenson said it would likely be a year until the new policies take effect for the nation's 1.6 million federal workers. The agency sets guidelines and administers the testing. All federal workers are eligible to be tested. SAMHSA, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, tests fewer than 200,000 workers a year. The decision about who is tested often depends on the sensitivity of their job. But because its standards are followed by regulatory agencies that conduct testing in industries they oversee, SAMHSA is responsible for about 6.5 million of the 40 million workplace drug tests done each year by U.S. employers. The agency's testing standards are also widely followed by thousands of other employers, public and private. Changes set for 2005 The proposed changes are due out "literally any day," Stephenson said. He would not discuss details of the proposals before their release. Changes would not likely go into effect until early next year, after the agency solicits public comment, finalizes guidelines and prepares for the transition. Once that happens, many other employers could follow suit, government and industry officials say. Changes would not likely go into effect until 2005, after the agency solicits public comment, finalizes guidelines and prepares for the transition. "There's no doubt about it that SAMHSA's guidelines become the standard for the industry whether you're a regulated employer or not, and so what SAMHSA does will have wide-ranging impact," said Kenneth Kunsman, a marketing executive with OraSure Technologies Inc., which makes a saliva testing kit. More employers are already using alternative testing. But many have held back because of the lack of standards, said Laura Shelton, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association, which represents test manufacturers and labs. Alternative tests hold appeal because their accuracy cannot be foiled with products sold to mask drug residue in urine, say company and government officials, noting that the tests are extremely accurate. Privacy advocates concerned But privacy advocates express doubts, pointing to cases of police officers and others ho allege false positives because their hair absorbed drugs around them, as well as research suggesting dark hair soaks up more drug byproducts than light hair. "There's a lot that would need to be done before these types of tests, in our minds, ould be sufficient to be used for workplace testing," said Jeremy Gruber, legal director for the National Workrights Institute, an employee advocacy group. The screening industry has worked in recent years to promote alternative tests. Casino operators and local police departments were among the first to use hair testing for pre-employment screening because it allows detection of drug use over much longer periods than urine. It is also now used by employers including Kraft Foods Inc. and brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos. "Urine tests were fallible in a variety of ways," said Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Mirage, which adopted pre-employment hair testing for all its 42,000 workers in 1993. "We want our people to be sharp." Psychemedics Corp., the largest hair testing company, has about 2,600 corporate clients and last year did about 400,000 tests, vice president Bill Thistle said. Saliva testing has been marketed for workplace drug testing for only a few years. Companies including paper manufacturer Georgia-Pacific Corp. have adopted it. Kunsman said the labs affiliated with his firm this year expect to process 60,000 to 70,000 workplace drug tests a month. More tools at employers' disposal Government officials and testing industry executives say the new tests are less a replacement for urine screening than additional tools in employers' arsenal. "In different cases, one specimen may be better than the other," said Dr. Donna Bush, drug testing team leader at SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Saliva testing, done using a swab that looks much like a toothbrush but with a pad instead of bristles, is best at detecting drug use within the past one or two days. Hair testing, in which a sample about the thickness of a shoelace is clipped at the root from the back of the head, allows detection of many drugs used as far back as 3 months. Sweat testing, in which workers are fitted with a patch that is worn for two weeks, is used to screen people who have returned to work after drug treatment.