Quest DTI: Why marijuana screening still matters

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were nearly 7 million job openings in January 2026. The industries with the highest job openings rate were leisure and hospitality (5.8%), private education and health services (5.2%), and mining and logging (4.5%). Lowest rates were in construction (2.7%).¹

Complicating the process of filling those job openings is the fact that 40 states have legalized marijuana for medical use, while 24 states have legalized it for recreational use.² And each year lawmakers at the state level consider dozens of bills that would either expand marijuana legalization or further restrict what employers can do to protect their workplaces from marijuana use by workers.

Unfortunately, the legalization of marijuana in so many states has likely led to more people using marijuana on the way to work or while on the job. It also coincides with a trend among some employers to discontinue pre-employment testing for fear too many job applicants will fail their pre-hire drug screen because of marijuana use. On the surface that sounds reasonable, right? Employers need to fill job openings. But what if hiring more marijuana users results in more drug-related workplace accidents?

According to the Quest Diagnostics 2025 Drug Testing Index^TM (DTI), in workplace sectors not covered by government-mandated regular drug screening, “Marijuana positivity following workplace accidents also remains high – post-accident positivity was 7.3% in 2024, just slightly below the record high of 7.5% in 2023.” ³

Does it make a lot of sense to discontinue pre-employment drug testing or to drop marijuana from a pre-hire screening program if it means more workplace accidents? After all, workplace safety is a high priority for most employers, especially in safety-sensitive industries.

In Current Consulting Group’s 2025 Employer Drug Testing Survey, cosponsored by Quest Diagnostics, 78% of employers identified promoting workplace safety as their top reason for conducting drug testing and 44% said it was to hire better quality job candidates.⁴

Quest Diagnostics publishes the Drug Testing Index as a public service and over the last 37 years it has become, perhaps, the most anticipated annual report on workplace drug testing. Employers can use data from the DTI to make important drug-free workplace program decisions, such as which drugs to test for and under what circumstances to conduct drug tests.

Through our workforce health solutions, Quest Diagnostics not only provides state-of-the-art laboratory testing but also offers other services designed to optimize the health, safety, and well-being of employees. For more information, visit WorkforceHealthSolutions.com.

Referring to the 2025 DTI, Sam Sphar, vice president and general manager of Workforce Health Solutions at Quest Diagnostics, offered the following analysis: "The overall drug positivity rate continues to reflect persistent trends. When we talk to employers, they tell us the same thing the Quest data tells us—that drug abuse is an ongoing issue among the American workforce. Many also realize that permissive attitudes around drug use can put all employees at risk whether or not they use substances, not to mention the risk to the general public."

Over the past 5 years, the DTI reports that post-accident positivity in the general workforce increased from 9.5% in 2020 to 10.4% in 2022 before decreasing slightly to 10.2% in 2024. Among federally mandated, safety-sensitive workers, post-accident positivity has hovered around 4.5% during the same period.³

When post-accident and pre-employment positivity rates for marijuana are compared side-by-side, post-accident positives were 52% higher than pre-employment positives in 2024.³

Why are the post-accident positives higher? Perhaps because pre-employment testing serves as a deterrent to drug-using applicants applying for jobs with companies that conduct pre-hire drug screens. It may also mean that once hired, some new employees who use marijuana, for example, who were able to successfully abstain from drug use in order to pass a pre-employment test, reverted back to their marijuana-use behavior.

The data also shows that post-accident positivity for marijuana has increased dramatically since 2016, from 3.8% to 7.3%. This increase has been fueled at least in part by an equally significant increase in pre-employment positivity for marijuana, rising from 2.4% to 4.8% during the same period. These increases in positivity coincide with the widespread legalization of marijuana in many states, underscoring the importance of continuing pre-employment testing that includes marijuana.

Post-accident vs. pre-employment positivity rates for marijuana: Urine drug tests (for general US workforce, as a percentage of all such tests)

Drug Abuse and the Unemployed

According to the most recent “Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey” (JOLTS), there were about 7.5 million unemployed people in the U.S. at the end of 2025.5 In other words, these are the people who are applying for jobs at your company. And if you are considering discontinuing pre-employment testing you should look at a report published by American Addiction Centers in July 2024 on the relationship between unemployment and substance use disorders (SUD):

“Unemployment is a risk factor for substance misuse and substance use disorders, according to a review of studies done on the topic. Research suggests that becoming unemployed and losing an income can lead to psychosocial stress, which can worsen an individual’s health and lead to short-term coping strategies, including substance use.

“In particular, data shows that job loss was associated with a higher risk of alcohol-related health problems and the development of an alcohol use disorder as well as illicit drug use and illicit drug dependence, wherein the body becomes so used to having the substance present that suddenly stopping use or significantly reducing the dose can bring on withdrawal symptoms.”⁶

And when you add to your consideration that the DTI found that marijuana remains the most frequently detected substance, with positivity holding steady at 4.5% in the general US workforce year over year, it’s more likely than not that many of the unemployed job seekers are also using marijuana.

Conclusion

For employers, of course, when it comes to drug testing it is often all about the bottom line. Drug abuse is increasing in the U.S., and the workplace is not immune from the problems associated with substance abuse such as drug-related workplace accidents. Companies that conduct pre-employment testing that includes marijuana reduce the likelihood of hiring individuals who are more likely to use drugs, be at work while under the influence of drugs and, perhaps, cause accidents… all of which impact a company’s bottom line.

It is wise to remember that according to the Quest Diagnostics 2025 Drug Testing Index: “Marijuana positivity following workplace accidents reached a record high of 7.5% in 2023” and it hasn’t really come down since then.

Discontinuing pre-employment drug testing or dropping marijuana from a pre-hire screening program probably means more workplace accidents. And the number 1 benefit of drug testing, according to the employers who do it? Workplace safety.