An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Drug use among U.S. workers has been linked to a host of economic, social, and public health problems. A substantial body of research shows that worker drug use and heavy alcohol use are associated with lower productivity, employee absenteeism, workplace accidents, and higher health insurance costs (see National Research Council, 1994). In 1994, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Small Business Administration, developed and implemented a special module in the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) that was designed to gather data on drug use among U.S. workers and company policies and programs that address employee drug use. This report uses these nationally-representative data to examine the prevalence of current illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use among workers employed in various occupations and different sized establishments, several workplace behaviors that may be associated with illicit drug or heavy alcohol use, the percentage of workers reporting that their companies had policies or programs that address drug and alcohol use, the percentage of workers who reported that their companies had drug testing programs, and employees’ reactions to these programs.

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.