Cocaine use by isle workers doubles

Cocaine use in the workplace doubled in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period while marijuana still remained the drug of choice.

Among employees and job applicants tested for drugs, 0.4 percent tested positive for cocaine during the final three months of the year, according to a report Tuesday by Honolulu-based Diagnostic Laboratory Services Inc. That’s up from 0.3 percent in the third quarter and double the 0.2 percent who tested positive for the drug in the fourth quarter of 2014.

DLS did not report the exact number of those tested, but said its quarterly sample size typically includes between 7,000 and 10,000 drug tests.

Marijuana use declined to 2.3 percent of employees in the fourth quarter compared with 2.5 percent in the year-earlier period. Hawaii use of the drug closely tracks the mainland’s 2014 rate of 2.4 percent.

The use of methamphetamine, or “ice,” continued to be a big problem in Hawaii with 0.7 percent of the workers and applicants testing positive during the fourth quarter. That is about four times the 0.17 percent average ice use found in workforce drug testing in 2014 on the mainland. Methamphetamine use last quarter in Hawaii, however, did decline from 0.9 percent in the year-earlier quarter.

Synthetic urine use remained the same at 0.8 percent in the fourth quarters of 2015 and 2014, while opiate use declined to 0.3 percent from 0.4 percent in the year-earlier period.