An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs

2.1Demographic Characteristics of Workers Reporting Current Illicit Drug and Heavy Alcohol Use

Figure 2.1 provides the distribution of current illicit drug use among full-time workers by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and personal income. The percentages are accompanied by the estimated number of workers who reported use, since, as seen in Chapter 1, the percentage distributions and estimated numbers provide the full context of use and a complementary picture of the distribution of use in the population of full-time workers.

As among the general population (see Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, 1996a,b), current illicit drug use was relatively more common among younger workers than among older workers. About 12 percent of 18-25-year-old workers, almost 9 percent of 26-34-year-old workers, and more than 5 percent of 35-49-year-old workers reported current illicit drug use. However, the largest number of full-time workers who reported current illicit drug use was estimated to be in the older age categories: over two million full-time workers in each of the two older age groups, but only about one-and-a-half million workers in the younger age group, were estimated to be current illicit drug users. These results reflect the fact that only about 16.3 percent of full-time workers, age 18-49, in the U.S. are age 18-25, while 31.8 percent are age 26-34 and 51.9 percent are age 35-49.

Male workers were more likely than female workers to report current illicit drug use. About nine percent of males, yet only five percent of females, reported current illicit drug use. Moreover, an estimated four million males, but only about one-and-a-half million females, were current illicit drug users.

White workers had higher rates of current illicit drug use than black or Hispanic workers (8%, 7%, and 6%, respectively). In addition, the estimated number of users was overwhelmingly white: about 83 percent of the estimated number of current illicit drug users were white while only about 9percent were black and 7 percent were Hispanic. These numbers reflect the racial/ethnic distribution of the full-time

This page was last updated on June 03, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.