In the 21st century, the perception around marijuana has rapidly shifted a widely disliked item to something that is legal for over half of all Americans. Statistically, it went from 12% in favor of marijuana’s legalization in 1969 to 70% of Americans supporting approval rating in 2023. While certain states like Colorado and Washington were the first to legalize, others like Idaho and Kansas have been dragging their feet on legalization or decriminalization at all.
Because the usage has seen a rising trend, it has also become an increasingly relevant topic in the workplace. Slightly above 10% of employed Americans admit to cannabis usage and, of this subset, around three-quarters of the people believe being high improves their work productivity. There has also been some legislation around pre-screening for marijuana usage in states like Nevada and Washington D.C. As a result, around 48% of companies have stopped pre-screening for marijuana entirely.
Even if you wanted to, marijuana is becoming a more difficult task. Out of an estimated 5.5 million samples, around 25,000 of all drug tests are considered ‘invalid’. This marks a 45% year-over-year increase from 2022 to 2023. These invalid tests can indicate that someone mixed a sample with an unknown additive that undermines the integrity of the test. Another 6,000 tests were classified as ‘substituted’, meaning that the tests may have been swapped out to someone who is not the intended applicant. Ultimately, regardless of your opinions on marijuana, the winds of change have brought marijuana into favor for the foreseeable future.
Source: US Drug Test Centers
