FEW WORKERS TEST POSITIVE FOR DRUGS, STUDY FINDS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Fewer American workers are testing positive for illicit
drugs, and those who are have turned more to marijuana and less to cocaine,
according to an industry report released today.

About 5 percent of workers tested positive for illegal substances in 1997,
down from 5.8 percent in 1996, according to SmithKline Beecham's drug
testing index. As workers were found to have taken drugs, those who did
increasingly kept away from the hard stuff, said Tom Johnson, spokesman for
the British drug maker.

``We're doing more testing but finding that the rate continues to
decline,'' Johnson said. ``Marijuana continues to be the drug of choice.''

Tests detected marijuana in 60 percent of those who tested positive last
year, up from 54 percent in 1996. Cocaine use, however, declined from
nearly 23 percent to less than 17 percent during the same period.

SmithKline Beecham based its results on the nearly 5 million workplace drug
tests the company's clinical laboratories performed last year.

Workers in jobs SmithKline classifies as ``safety-sensitive'' tested
positive less often, at 3.5 percent of all those tested. That compares with
5.2 percent among those in the general work force.

When employers tested workers ``for cause,'' meaning they believed there
was reason to suspect drug use, more than one in four workers tested
positive.

The rise of workplace drug testing has spawned a cottage industry in ways
to beat the tests. Richard Haddad, whose Health Tech company in Georgia
gets 500 calls a day from people asking about herbal detoxification teas,
urine sample additives and other products, calls the business a
``multimillion-dollar industry.''

Despite the rise of the test-beating industry, workplace drug testing
appears to be more popular among employers. Last month the Supreme Court
allowed random drug tests for some people with access to the White House
complex, despite arguments that government is trampling privacy rights in
pursuit of a drug-free workforce.

Regionally, the highest positive rates came not from New York, Chicago or
Los Angeles -- where 4 to 6 percent of workers tested positive -- but from
such regions as southwestern Tennessee, western Indiana and northwestern
Florida. In those regions, 8 percent to 14 percent of workers' tests came
back positive.

The results surprised even some of those who ran the study.

``I would've expected the large metropolitan areas around New York, around
Philadelphia, around Miami, around Los Angeles to show a high percentage of
positives,'' Johnson said.

As many as 10 million adults use illicit drugs per month and more than 70
percent of them are employed, according to the government's National
Household Surveys.

Fewer positive tests don't necessarily mean fewer workers on drugs.