Workplace Drug Tests Show Spike in Cannabis and Cocaine Use

Positive Test Rates Climb Across Multiple Drug Classes

Cannabis and cocaine positivity rates rose in employer drug screening programs during 2026, extending multi-year trends that accelerated after the pandemic. The data, compiled by Ogletree Deakins from its client base of employers conducting pre-employment and random testing, shows cannabis positivity climbing to its highest level in the firm's tracking history. Cocaine positivity also increased, reversing a brief decline observed in 2024-2025.

The firm didn't release specific percentage-point increases or absolute positivity rates in its initial summary. Still, the directional shift aligns with Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp data from earlier in 2026 showing cannabis positivity in the general U.S. workforce hovering near 4.5 percent in urine screens, up from 3.1 percent in 2019.

Ogletree's analysis draws from employers in safety-sensitive industries—transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare—where federal Department of Transportation rules or state-specific mandates still require drug-free workplace programs despite state-level cannabis legalization.

State Legalization and Remote Work Complicate Employer Policies

The rise in cannabis positivity coincides with 28 states now operating adult-use programs and a growing number of jurisdictions restricting pre-employment marijuana testing. New York, New Jersey, California, Nevada, and Washington have all enacted statutes limiting or prohibiting employers from declining to hire applicants based solely on a positive cannabis test, absent safety-sensitive roles or federal contract requirements.

Employers are caught between state-level employee protections and federal contractor obligations that still treat cannabis as a Schedule I substance, creating compliance complexity that varies by geography and job classification.

Remote work adds another wrinkle. Workers living in legalized states but employed by companies headquartered in prohibition states face unclear testing jurisdictions. Some employers have moved to oral-fluid testing, which detects recent use rather than the 30-day detection window of urine screens, in an effort to identify impairment rather than off-duty consumption. The upside: it reduces false positives and legal exposure. The downside: oral-fluid tests cost more and lack the established cutoff thresholds that urine testing has refined over decades.

Cocaine Resurgence Reflects Broader Stimulant Trends

Cocaine's return to growth in workplace testing mirrors public-health data showing stimulant use climbing across multiple demographics. The CDC reported cocaine-involved overdose deaths rising 23 percent year-over-year in provisional 2026 data, driven in part by fentanyl contamination in the cocaine supply chain. Unlike cannabis, no state has moved to restrict employer testing for cocaine. Positive results remain disqualifying across nearly all industries.

The Ogletree data didn't break out methamphetamine or prescription stimulant positivity, though Quest Diagnostics has flagged methamphetamine as the fastest-growing positive result in its general workforce panel since 2022. Employers in logistics and warehousing have reported particular concern about stimulant use among shift workers, where long hours and productivity quotas create demand-side pressure.

Investor and Operator Implications

For cannabis operators, rising workplace positivity is a double-edged signal: it confirms normalization of use but also highlights the compliance burden that remains a tax on the industry. Multi-state operators including Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, and Trulieve have all flagged 280E tax treatment and federal illegality as the primary drags on margin. Workplace testing sits downstream of that same Schedule I classification.

The compliance-software sector is the clearest beneficiary. Companies offering employer drug-testing management platforms—Verified First and HireRight among them—are seeing increased demand for state-specific policy modules that automate which tests are permissible in which jurisdictions. That's a recurring-revenue tailwind in a fragmented regulatory environment.

For background on how workplace testing intersects with state legalization frameworks, see the CannIntel topic hub on workplace drug testing. The next major variable: whether federal rescheduling to Schedule III, if finalized, triggers a wave of employer policy revisions or leaves testing protocols unchanged due to DOT and safety-sensitive carve-outs.