According to the results of a new study carried out by researchers at the Ohio State University, close to 1 in 10 workers in their 30s use alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drugs such as cocaine while on the job in the U.S. The study, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, sampled a total of 5,465 employees who took part in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, which is a national sample of men and women who were 12- to 17-years-old in 1997 and interviewed regularly until 2022. Moreover, the surveys were conducted by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research with data from the 2015-2016 survey.
As part of the study, researchers based the results on survey participants’ reports of substance use immediately before or during a work shift within the last month. It was found that approximately 8.9% of workers reported any substance use in the workplace, with 5.6% drinking alcohol, 3.1% using cannabis, and 0.08% taking cocaine or other illicit drugs.
“We’re really concerned to see the findings for safety-sensitive occupations—not just in construction, but also installation, maintenance, repair, transportation and material movement,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Sehun Oh, associate professor of social work at The Ohio State University, in his interview with Spectrum News. “In many federal-level transportation occupations, there are policies prohibiting operating under the influence. So we’re surprised to see that still 6% of material moving workers are working under the influence, and 2% of them are using marijuana—this was striking, because other than drug testing policies, it’s hard to implement interventions for workers moving from place to place.”
Moreover, Dr. Oh added that another study published in 2023 showed that only half of workers in a national sample had access to support services for substance use issues. His study co-author, assistant professor of social work Dr. Daejun Park at Ohio University, added that variations in workplace substance-use policies could also be an explanation for the industry differences in risk for employee alcohol and drug use on the job. According to his previous study, 20% of participants said their workplace had no substance use policy.
“What I found was policy alone can’t be effective in reducing substance use problems—policies need to be accompanied by support services,” Dr. Park said. “That’s one thing we propose in this paper—that combining alcohol and other drug policies with supportive services produces the greatest benefits, rather than relying on either alone.”
“Our research shows that those under adverse working conditions with many barriers to economic and well-being resources tend to use substances as a coping mechanism, whether that relates to an emotional toll or physical demands of not just working conditions, but their life circumstances,” added Dr. Oh. “There is a need for more structural support to address these huge implications for the health of workers and others, and to reduce the stigma associated with substance use.”