A few years ago, I read an article about a factory somewhere in the upper Midwest that made huge electric motors. The company paid well but hiring enough skilled workers was a challenge. The main problem was marijuana. They required a drug-free workplace and too many applicants tested positive for cannabis. A manager at the company suggested it would be dangerous to have someone high on drugs in that factory, considering they had to move around huge electromagnetic coils weighing tons. I could see his point. Certain jobs need to be drug free: such as airline pilots, nuclear power station technicians, bus drivers, and truck drivers, also my surgeon. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that employers are becoming less concerned about marijuana use than in years past, saying:
More Americans are testing positive for marijuana in workplace drug tests, raising questions among employers over their usefulness in screening job candidates.
As legalized marijuana spreads, its growing use is showing up in drug tests at some of the highest rates in years, according to new data from Quest Diagnostics, which conducted about eight million workforce drug tests in 2025. The share of urine tests that came back positive for the substance rose to 4.4% last year, up from 3.9% in 2021.
Hair tests, a less common method that can detect drug use much further back, as much as 90 days before, showed more widespread use. About 15% of workers screened that way tested positive for marijuana, a nearly 60% jump from 2021. Random screenings were even higher at 21%.
Fentanyl is also showing up in more random drug screens. The positive rate has about doubled since 2020.
Fewer employers say marijuana use is a dealbreaker, and fewer employers are screening at all. More from WSJ:
“I’ve had other employers tell me, ‘If I test for that, I’m not gonna have any applicants,’” Logsdon said. “They’re being very choosy about which role they test for.”
In a 2024 survey of nearly 1,000 employers, the law firm found about half didn’t test for cannabis in the pre-hire process, often for that reason. Among those that did test, 44% said they faced recruiting challenges and nearly a quarter said they were considering loosening the policy.
AutoNation, Home Depot and Amazon have done away with marijuana screening for most applicants within the last five years. WSJ reports that safety-sensitive jobs are unlikely to follow suit. Indeed, firms recruiting truck drivers and school bus drivers often use hair tests to screen for longer term drug use.
Drug use is up across the board. Long term hair tests for marijuana find that about 15% test positive, while only about 4% test positive for cocaine. Using urine tests, the lowest rate of marijuana use is among government workers (2.4%) while the highest rates are among retail workers (7.6%). Amphetamine and methamphetamine are around 2.3%, while oxycodone is <1%.
Firms tend to be less concerned about marijuana as more states legalize its use recreationally or medicinally. In that regard, employers’ rising acceptance of cannabis use mirrors the growing acceptance by society. In addition, some states prohibit drug testing potential employees while others offer some protection for marijuana users.
Read more at Wall Street Journal: More U.S. Workers Are Testing Positive for Marijuana. Fewer Employers Are Concerned