Most drug users employed full time, new study says
Most illegal drug users are employed full time, according to a study released recently by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in Washington, DC.
The group’s research determined that 70% of drug users between 18 and 49 years old are fully employed, which raises questions about the implications for occupational health. According to the study, the overall rate of illicit drug use among full-time employees remained relatively stable — rising slightly from 7.4% of workers in 1992 to 7.7% of workers in 1997. Overall, 6.3 million U.S. workers admitted to having used some sort of illicit drug during the previous 30 days.
The problem is not limited to just illicit drugs. The study also revealed that another 6.2 million workers describe themselves as heavy alcohol users, meaning they consumed five or more drinks per occasion on five or more days in the month previous to the survey.
The survey is conducted every three years by the Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers surveyed 7,957 full-time workers between the ages of 18 and 49 in the United States in 1997. The study sample represents more than 81.8 million workers.
The highest rate of illicit drug use, 19%, was found in food preparation workers, waiters, and bartenders. They also reported a high rate of heavy alcohol use (15%). Other occupations with higher illicit drug use rates were construction (14%), service occupations (13%), and transportation and material moving (10%). Heavy alcohol use rates were also high among food handlers, helpers and laborers (14%) and construction workers (12%).
Certain groups more prone to drug use
Drug use was significantly more common among some demographic groups than others. The research suggests that illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use is higher among workers age 18 to 25 than among older workers, higher among males than females, higher among whites than among blacks and Hispanics, and higher among workers with less than a high school education compared with those with a high school degree or more education.
In another finding with occupational health implications, illicit drug users and heavy alcohol users were more likely than nonusers to have worked for three or more employers or quit their job in the year before the survey was conducted.
Efforts to detect drug use among employees apparently have some effect in deterring those workers from jobs where it is known that they will be tested. The most recent survey indicates that a larger percentage of illicit drug users than nonusers said that they would prefer not to work for an employer that tests for drugs. The number of establishments that have drug testing programs increased from 44% in 1994 to 49% in 1997, according to SAMHSA.
Among workers who admitted to recently using drugs, 81% had used marijuana, nearly 20% had used psychotherapeutic drugs like Valium or codeine (without a prescription), 12% had used cocaine, and 2.7% had used heroine. Drug use was highest in the highest and lowest income brackets. Of those workers who made less than $9,000 per year, 14.5% reported illicit drug use, followed by 9.3% of workers who made $75,000 per year or more. Workers who had income between those groups had lower rates of illicit drug use.
[Editor’s note: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report is available for free from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Room 12-105 Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. Telephone: (301) 443-4795. Web: www.samhsa.gov.]
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