The percentage of workers testing positive for drugs is the highest it's been in 16 years, especially for marijuana, said the Wall Street Journal. Data from Quest Diagnostics says that 4.5 percent of workers have failed their drug tests overall; of those testing positive for marijuana, the percentage grew by 11 percent in 2019 and by 29 percent since 2015, the proportion keeping apace with legalization across various states. The current percentage of overall workers who've failed a drug test has grown by 1 percent from its all-time low of 3.5 percent over a decade ago.

As the data is from before the pandemic hit, it is currently unknown the degree to which COVID-19 has affected drug use one way or another. But other data has indicated that drug use overall has been on the rise over this past year. This tracks with medical research on this matter, which has found that stress is a risk factor for addiction and drug abuse. Considering the global pandemic and its attendant economic chaos, one might argue that people are far more stressed out this year than in previous ones, which could drive further drug use.