Barrier to Legalization: Drug Testing Industry

There are many barriers to the legalization of medical marijuana in the United States. Some – political platforms, lack of public support, etc. – are more obvious than others. One that many may not consider is the rapidly-growing drug testing industry.

Employment drug testing has become the norm for many modern businesses (67% according to a 2001 survey). Pre-employment and random drug testing have helped to make drug testing a $5.9 billion a year industry, which relies heavily on positive marijuana screens to keep it alive.

The most common form of drug testing, as it is the least expensive, is a urine analysis, which costs between 20 and 25 dollars to perform. Hair testing, which can track a longer history of drug use, costs around $50.

But different drugs can be detected in the urine for a longer period of time after use than others. For example, cocaine is out of the body in 1-2 days; Methamphetamines, 2-4 days; Heroin, 1-2 days; MDMA (Ecstasy) 1-5 days. However, marijuana’s active ingredient THC is fat-soluble, meaning it stores itself in the body’s fat deposits and can be detected up to 30 days after its use. This means that users of serious harmful drugs can clean their system in less than 5 days and be undetectable as drug users, while an occasional marijuana smoker can be busted a month after smoking.

A vast majority of positive results on employment drug tests are as a result of marijuana, a relationship which is directly correlated to the drug’s detectable life in the body. Heavy cocaine users and addicts can stop use a day or two before a job interview and go by undetected, posing a much larger risk for a corporation than a marijuana user. Were marijuana made legal, companies would find pre-employment drug testing obsolete, as they would almost never encounter a positive result. This would destroy the drug test industry, and they know it. So they fight for the drug to remain illegal across the board.

Special interests hold enormous power in this country. Indeed, far too much power for a country that was built to be governed by the people, for the people. We must work to look past special interests and lobbies in Washington and objectively analyze the pros and cons of an issue in terms of the citizens, rather than in terms of who has the fattest pockets.