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Drugs

Employers Can't Find Enough Workers Who Can Pass Drug Tests

The job market is pretty strong, but so is America's fondness for being high.
Photo via Flickr user Steven Depolo

Read: The Colorado Supreme Court Says Smoking Weed Can Still Get You Fired

Bosses around America have been frustrated lately in their search for workers who don't need to strap on a fake plastic penis or smuggle clean urine into the bathroom to pass a drug test, the New York Times reports.

The recession may technically be over—"full employment," anyone?—and jobs all over the country are seemingly up for grabs. Employers for transportation and construction gigs, though—which tend to require drug tests for safety reasons—are increasingly coming up empty on solid prospects.

The drought of drug-free bodies isn't just affecting places with liberalized marijuana laws like Colorado—where marijuana use can still get you fired. Sure, the widespread acceptance and use of marijuana among adults probably has something to do with it, but the Times suggests the problem also stems from a growing trend of opioid and heroin use across the US.

At the same time, more bosses in industries like trucking are drug-testing than ever before.

Whether companies that operate dangerous machinery double-down on drug tests or resign themselves to the specter of stoned workers remains to be seen.