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More employees are cheating on workplace drug tests. Here’s how they do it.
A record number of U.S. workers are cheating on employer drug tests by tampering with urine samples or using other means to evade detection, new research shows.
The percentage of employees who tried to fake the results of workplace drug screenings jumped more than six-fold in 2023 from the previous year, according to Quest Diagnostics, a national drug testing company.
The surge in workers trying to hide their drug use comes as more states across the U.S. legalize recreational marijuana use. The shifting legal environment and changing societal norms around cannabis use is forcing employers to review their drug-testing policies. The chief aim of employer-mandated drug tests is to ensure a safe workplace, while recreational drug use can also affect worker productivity.
“Workforce drug testing exists because it’s intended as a deterrence mechanism,” Dr. Suhash Harwani, senior director of science for workforce health solutions at Quest, told CBS MoneyWatch. “That’s why it was founded — to ensure workplace safety.”
Quest’s analysis of lab data also found that the drug positivity rate for the overall U.S. workforce remained at a record high of 4.6%, up from a low of 3.5% between 2010 and 2012.
As of April 2024, recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, or nearly half the country, according to the Pew Research Center.
How workers cheat
Workers typically used one of two methods to foil an employer’s drug testing protocols: substituting their urine specimens by replacing them with synthetic formulas or even animal urine, or submitting invalid specimens, suggesting they’d been tampered with in order to conceal drug use.
“Given the growing acceptance and use of some drugs, particularly marijuana, it may be unsurprising that some people feel it necessary to try and cheat a drug test,” Dr. Harwani said in a statement. “It is possible that our society’s normalization of drug use is fostering environments in which some employees feel it is acceptable to use such drugs without truly understanding the impact they have on workplace safety.”
Some experts expressed concern about the findings, saying they underline a need to improve drug testing policies and procedures.
“Drug tests are an important tool employers have to keep everyone in communities safe,” Katie Mueller, senior program manager at the National Safety Council, told CBS MoneyWatch. “When policy and procedure fails us or people make decisions to alter their tests for whatever reason, it puts everyone at risk.”
Regarding the widening push to legalize cannabis, Mueller added that “we need to have a really open dialogue with employees, employers and lawmakers about the impacts of legalization, and how it’s trickling down to the workplace.”
Dr. Harwani said there could be better ways of testing employees and job candidates for drug use than relying on urine samples. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently approved oral fluid testing to detect drug use, in addition to using urine samples.
Whereas urine samples are submitted in a private space, oral fluids are collected directly by lab technicians. And while drugs can take time to show up in a donor’s urine sample, they can be detected in saliva immediately after they are used.
What to know about Nevada
Nevada, with an economy largely based around tourism and hospitality surrounding Las Vegas, is home to a significant working class population. Both Trump and Harris announced no-tax-on-tips policies in Nevada earlier this year, underscoring the dominance of service industry workers in the Silver State.
Although a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won Nevada since 2004, Democrats’ margin of victory has decreased in recent years. The Silver State’s economy, dependent on the hospitality industry, was among the most impacted by pandemic closures in 2020, leading to a much slower recovery than in other states, and spurring frustration with Democrat-led policies.
In 2022, Republicans flipped the governor’s mansion, and the state was home to the closest Senate race in the country, suggesting that in 2024, it could be seriously in play for Republicans even at the presidential level. But Nevada, a state with high population turnover, has historically posed polling difficulties. And the largest voting bloc — more than 30% of voters — are registered as nonpartisan in 2024.
How Nevada voted in 2016 and 2020
All but two counties backed Trump in the last election — but those two Democrat-voting counties, home to Las Vegas and Reno, make up the bulk of the state’s population. President Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election by more than 33,000 votes, and Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016, besting Trump by just over 27,000 votes.
Major races in Nevada
Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown are facing off in a key Senate race in Nevada as Democrats fight to hold onto control of the chamber. Brown, a 40-year-old businessman and former Army captain who lost the 2022 Republican Senate primary, is aiming to unseat Rosen in her first reelection bid and deliver the GOP its first Senate seat win in the Silver State since 2012.
Anchor and Emmy Award-winning journalist Chauncy Glover has died unexpectedly at the age of 39.
Chauncy joined the KCAL News Anchor Team in October 2023 after spending eight years in Houston as the first black male main anchor at KTRK.
For the past year, he has co-anchored the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts with Pat Harvey and shared the desk with Suzie Suh at KCAL News at 8 and 10 p.m.
KCAL News
While his love for journalism caught him at an early age, Chauncy has always focused on the communities he served in, whether it was through his storytelling or his outreach.
“We, Sherry and Robert Glover, along with Chauncy’s beloved family, are devastated by the unimaginable loss of our beloved Chauncy,” the Glover family wrote in a statement. “He was more than a son and brother—he was a beacon of light in our lives and a true hero to his community.”
It was this passion as a true Southern gentleman that inspired Chauncy to create a mentorship program while working for WDIV in Detroit. After witnessing a teenager die on the streets, he started “The Chauncy Glover Project” as a hands-on, extensive mentoring program that helped transform teenage boys into upstanding gentlemen.
KCAL News
The program focuses on dressing for success, manhood, etiquette, college readiness, tutoring, public speaking, community service and more. The CGP Gents and Young Gents are 7-12th graders who Chauncy and other mentors met with twice a month for empowerment sessions and enrichment outings.
Chauncy relocated the program to Houston after he moved there to anchor at KTRK. CGP has proudly sent more than 350 boys of color to college and has mentored more than 1,000 young men.
“Chauncy’s compassion and dedication to helping others, especially through the Chauncy Glover Project, changed countless lives and inspired so many young men to pursue their dreams,” his family wrote. “His talent, warmth, and vision left an imprint on everyone who knew him, and the world is dimmer without him.”
While the three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist started his professional career with WTVM News in Columbus, Georgia, the news bug bit him at an early age. When he was just 5, Chauncy’s dad built him a mini anchor desk for the newscasts he would perform for his family every Sunday after church in his hometown of Athens, Alabama.
KCAL News
Chauncy worked in Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Texas before joining KCAL in California.
Chauncy also had a passion for theater, having acted in several national and Off-Broadway plays. One of his proudest moments came when he was asked to honor the late civil rights activist Rosa Parks by singing at her funeral in Montgomery, Alabama.
Chauncy traveled across the country as a motivational speaker, hoping to inspire the next generation of journalists.
“While we grieve this profound loss, we are comforted by the outpouring of love and memories shared by those who knew Chauncy as the passionate, gifted soul he was,” the family wrote. “We kindly ask for privacy as we mourn and honor his incredible legacy. He was taken from us far too soon, but his impact will be felt forever.”
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