Industries which were observed to have highest rates of illicit drug use are Food Service, Construction, Arts, Entertainment and Recreation, Retail and Transportation.
It was found that, at least one of every six adults working fulltime in food service between 2002 and 2004 took illicit drugs, contributing the industry, the highest risk of abuse among all business categories, according to the study conducted by federal government.
A study showed that drug abusers were less inclined than people who don’t take drugs to work at companies with drug or alcohol-abuse testing.
The survey showed that 17.4 percent of fulltime food service workers between the ages of 18 and 64 had taken illicit drugs when the poll was conducted. This showed the incidences of 15.1 percent for the construction industry, 9.6 percent for sales and 6.1 percent for management posts over all trades.
The government recognized that drug use is very high among construction industry employees and other drug use costs. The U.S. businesses estimated that every year the amount spent in lost productivity, accidents, employee turn over, and related problems due to drug abusers is $102 billion.
Transportation industries essentially require drug and alcohol testing policies to employees who are involved in safety sensitive transportation in aviation, trucking, rail roads, mass transit, pipelines and other transportation systems.
This is a really interesting piece. One cool thing about life in the 21st century is that more and more companies are providing treatment help for their addicted employees. They realize that it makes more sense from a humanistic POV and that it is less expensive to help the person get well than it is to hire and train a new employee.
My best friend’s son just died of an overdose. He was clean for over a year but was offered (heroine, I think) by a co-worker, and died that night.
He worked at a prestigious resort where it is widely known to be a den of drugs amongst the employees. I think regardless of the industry one works in, drug testing should be routine among every single employee, regardless of rank or pay.