Testing Slows Meth In Workplace

(AP)  Employers are catching more workers using methamphetamine, but the drug's spread into the workplace appears to have slowed considerably, a new study finds.

Employers who screen job applicants and workers for drugs saw the number testing positive for amphetamines increase by 6 percent last year. Positive tests for methamphetamine, one of two stimulants in that class of drugs, increased by 3 percent, according to a report to be released Monday by Quest Diagnostics Inc.

The figures are based on the results of 7.2 million workplace drug tests conducted in 2004 by Teterboro, N.J.-based Quest, one of the country's largest drug screening firms.

The limited increase contrasts sharply with 2003, when the number of workers testing positive for all amphetamines surged 44 percent and those failing the test for methamphetamine jumped 68 percent.

The percentage of workers testing positive for all drugs was unchanged at 4.5 percent. Of workers who tested positive, 55 percent failed the screening for marijuana, 15 percent for cocaine and 10 percent for amphetamines.

The popularity of methamphetamine has surged in recent years, prompting many states to try to limit the sales of the decongestant pseudoephedrine that is commonly used to make it.

But even as officials have worked to crack down on the manufacture and sale of the drug and encourage treatment, drug users have proven persistently creative at cheating on workplace tests. Such cheating will be the topic Tuesday of a hearing by a House of Representatives subcommittee.

A survey on methamphetamine use by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed 5.7 percent of people older than 26 said they had used the drug.

"It's just a little too soon for us to know what it (the workplace testing data) means," said Leah Young, a spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.