Meth use among Hawaii workers on the rise

The use of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as "ice," climbed slightly in the workplace to 0.7 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter’s 0.4 percent — the lowest level since 2004, according to Honolulu-based drug testing firm Diagnostic Laboratory Services Inc.

The statistics are an improvement from the 1.1 percent workplace usage in the first quarter of 2011 and just above the year-earlier quarter’s 0.6 percent meth use among the 7,000 to 10,000 workers and job candidates DLS tests.

While the workplace numbers are only moderately increasing, it indicates that meth is a constant problem that officials cannot seem to eliminate, said Carl Linden, DLS scientific director of toxicology.

"That root percentage is fairly ingrained — no matter what we do, it doesn’t seem to change that much," he said. "There always seems to be a certain percentage that’s going to use no matter what. They’ve got addictive behavior or social problems, and they’re going to alleviate that in one fashion or another depending on what they can afford and what’s available."

Hawaii’s meth use was 410 percent higher than the national average in a 2010 study of more than 4.5 million samples released last month by Quest Diagnostics, a major mainland drug tester. The study said meth use among the workforce nationwide was 0.1 percent.

Linden said Hawaii’s high cost of living and large percentage of service industry workers that carry multiple jobs and use the drug to stay awake or work harder could partially explain the high meth use.

However, he cautioned that the Hawaii comparison with the mainland is not as dramatic as it appears because it is based on very small percentages. For example, there were positive meth tests of 0.1 percent on the mainland last year, compared with 0.7 percent in Hawaii last quarter.

"We’ve always had a methamphetamine problem that’s been multiples of that of the mainland," he said. "Most of it’s been found to be geographical. We’re in the pipeline between East Asia, where it’s coming from. You can see it moving from West Coast to East Coast."

Synthetic urine used to mask drug use fell slightly, to 1.4 percent from 1.6 percent.

Marijuana use dropped to 3.0 percent from 3.2 percent in the previous quarter but was up year over year from 2.6 percent.

Meanwhile, cocaine use fell to 0.3 percent last quarter from 0.4 percent in the second quarter but was up from 0.1 in the previous year. Opiate use was unchanged at 0.2 percent.