1 in 12 US Workers Admit Using Drugs

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1 in 12 Workers Admits Using Drugs

By Associated Press

July 16, 2007, 8:06 AM CDT

WASHINGTON -- One in 12 full-time workers in the United States acknowledges having used illegal drugs in the past month, the government reports.

Most of those who report using illicit drugs are employed full-time, with the highest rates among restaurant workers, 17.4 percent, and construction workers, 15.1 percent, according to a federal study being released Monday. About 4 percent of teachers and social service workers reported using illegal drugs in the past month, which was among the lowest rates.

Federal officials said the newest survey is a snapshot and was not designed to show whether illicit drug usage in the workplace is a growing problem or a lessening one. The current usage rate is 8.2 percent. Two previous government surveys reflected a usage rate of 7.6 percent in 1994 and 7.7 percent in 1997, but those studies involved a much smaller sample of interviews.

The latest study comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, an agency within the Health and Human Services Department. The data is drawn from the agency's annual surveys in 2002, 2003 and 2004 of the civilian, non-institutionalized population. Each survey included interviews with more than 40,000 people, who were each paid $30 to participate.

Joe Gfroerer, an agency official, said most of the illicit drug use involved marijuana.

Anne Skinstad, a researcher and clinical psychologist, called the survey's results "very worrisome" because there are fewer treatment programs than there used to be to assist employees and employers with a dependence on drugs.

However, testing programs for drug use are fairly prevalent, with 48.8 percent of full-time workers telling the government that their employers conducted testing for drug use.

"I used to train supervisors to detect chronic use and intervene as early as possible, and that is a very good, constructive way rather than firing people," said Skinstad, an associate professor and director of the Prairielands Addiction Technology Transfer Center at the University of Iowa. "Some employers want drug testing. I'm not sure that's the way I would like to go. What I think I would like to focus on is employee performance."

The study also showed that the prevalence of illegal drug use reported by full-time workers in the past month was highest among younger workers.

Nineteen percent of workers age 18 to 25 said they used illegal drugs during the past month, compared with 10.3 percent among those age 26 to 34; 7 percent among those age 35 to 49; and 2.6 percent among those age 50 to 64.

Men accounted for about two-thirds of the workers -- 6.4 million -- who reported using illegal drugs in the past month, the government said. Men were also more likely than women to report illegal drug use in the past month -- 9.7 percent for men, versus 6.2 percent for women.

The study also looked at alcohol use by workers. About 10.1 million full-time workers, or 8.8 percent, reported heavy alcohol use. Heavy alcohol use was defined as drinking five or more drinks on one occasion at least five times in the past 30 days.

Source
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Seems like it should be higher than that.
 
I let out the biggest fuckin "HA" when i read this!! LMAO, i KNEW it. Restaurant and construction. Aint that the damn truth. hoo wee. I always said that but this just goes to show it.
Most ppl i ever met who work in a kitchen gets wasted . tons of cokeheads and potheads and everything else. and constrction that just goes without sayin. who dont know those contractors who start out the day in the work truck on the way to the site with a nice joint and finish off lunch with another. my BF been in that biz his whole life and i met many of his co workers bosses and friends from work and they all get high and drink and basically just a buncha crazy dudes who like to build/wreck/roof/wire/mow shit and get high.
 
It's nice to see how they could turn any type of drug use into something negative. Arguably, it's these people, the full time workers and users, that demonstrate that drugs can be used responsibly. Of course they completely disregard that point.
 
It makes me happy to think that the amount of workers getting high is way higher as well.

And I would imagine that school teachers are actually just the most afraid to admit it, for fear that it might somehow come back to them. They practically get crucified if they admit to drug use. It is a very high stress job however, so it is hard to imagine a large amount of faculty not abusing drugs, although they may not even know it with their benzo and opioid scripts.
 
phrozen said:
It's nice to see how they could turn any type of drug use into something negative. Arguably, it's these people, the full time workers and users, that demonstrate that drugs can be used responsibly. Of course they completely disregard that point.
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Phrozen, believe it or not, there was a drug warrior-general in the past--and I can't remember his name--who actually said that those who use drugs responsibly are more of a menace than those who don't...because it sends the "message" that drug use and responsibility can reside within the same person.

He was backed up by the LA police commissioner at the time--I can't remember what his name was either (no doubt because these types of individual are destined for the trash heap of human history)--who said that such people should be shot.

And these studies are redundant anyway. Levels of drug use can be determined by the street prices of various drugs--which don't lie.
 
^
That's just sad. So they're saying that the truth is the "wrong message to send." Well, I guess that's nothing new in regards to drug prohibition.

You're right about the redundancy.
 
Prohibition

A popular little ditty, from the thirties:

Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,
It don't prohibit worth a dime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it.

Franklin P. Adams (1931)
 
3 said:
It makes me happy to think that the amount of workers getting high is way higher as well.

And I would imagine that school teachers are actually just the most afraid to admit it, for fear that it might somehow come back to them. They practically get crucified if they admit to drug use. It is a very high stress job however, so it is hard to imagine a large amount of faculty not abusing drugs, although they may not even know it with their benzo and opioid scripts.
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I think this is the case as well, as I know for a fact that many of my HS teachers (and college profs) smoked pot regularly, or used to, and at the very least don't care at all about others using it. I even had a plant physiology prof say growing pot was what got him into studying botany in the first place. He wasn't some lazy half-ass teacher either, the guy was amazingly dedicated and would use up his own personal time to answer off-topic completely unrelated questions and do little experiments and everything. Great guy.
 
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fizzacyst said:
...He wasn't some lazy half-ass teacher either, the guy was amazingly dedicated and would use up his own personal time to answer off-topic completely unrelated questions and do little experiments and everything. Great guy.
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Sounds like someone the "authorities" would love to put up against the wall and slap with multiple career-terminating felonies in order to "save the children."
 
those numbers seem about right to me....i saw this on the news earlier today. they said that the food industry had a really high rate of drug use, and that doesnt surprise me. all the restrants ive worked in have had more than a few druggies. needless to say they were always the first ppl i became cool with haha

i know a bunch of ppl that hold down fulltime jobs and have dope addictions. its funny tho because im sure the numbers would be waaaay higher if it included RX drugs...but you know how that is, if the dr gives them to you, its not abuse lol
 
Sadly this is just going to be used by drug testing companies as scare tactics selling employers on even more intrusive tests.
 
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