Give Us Your Poor, Your Unemployed, Your Dope Fiends

The Great Recession had one effect on Americans you don’t hear much about - regular illicit drug use increased by approximately 2.5 million users in 36 months, from 2007 to 2010. The year 2011 (the most recent data available) saw a slight decline to an estimated 8.7% (from 8.9%) of all Americans regularly using illegal drugs, but, as ConvergEx's Nick Colas notes, this is still 19.5 million people who would find it difficult to pass a pre-employment drug test. The NIH’s National Institute of Drug Abuse & Addiction 2012 survey found that 17.2% of unemployed adults are current users of illicit drugs versus 8.0% who are full-time employed. While this is certainly only a partial explanation of the current still-high domestic unemployment rate, it does highlight how well-intentioned state-by-state decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana can work against a better national employment picture.

Via ConvergEx's Nick Colas,

Drug testing is commonplace in American business. Every year, millions of employees and prospective hires submit to either random testing or required pre-employment screening. Passing is a prerequisite of employment for new hires and can lead to dismissal in the case of an existing employee. Whether you want a job as a truck driver in the Bakken or an investment banker in New York, chances are very good that you will have to submit to, and pass, a test for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, heroin/opiates and PCP. Put another way, the specimen cup is the gateway to employment.

One of the less-discussed features of the Great Recession relates to the same topic: more Americans became regular users of illegal drugs during this period than at any point in the last decade. A few salient datapoints from the last published National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2011):
Some 22.5 million Americans reported using illicit drugs in the prior month. That is 8.7% of the over-12 year old domestic population, with the 2010 survey showing a similar 8.9% usage rate. Prior to the 2007 Financial Crisis and subsequent recession, that number was 8.0%.

The entire pickup in illegal drug usage over the 2007 – 2011 timeframe is from an increase in reported use of marijuana. Seven percent of the over-12 population reported using the drug in the prior 30 days in 2011, up from 5.8% in 2007. Seizure data from the FBI, tracked by the U.S. Census, supports the survey results. In 2010 (most recently available data) U.S. law enforcement seized 4.5 million pounds of marijuana from smugglers, dealers and users, up from 3.0 million pounds in 2006. 

Among the unemployed, reported illicit drug usage was 17.2% of that population, versus 8.0% for their counterparts who are employed full-time. It is worth noting that the survey protocol is in-person, with participants answering questions by filling out a computerized questionnaire. They receive $30 for completing the survey. Given the sensitive nature of questions over illegal drug use, it is entirely possible that the survey understates such use – perhaps materially –despite assurances of anonymity and confidentiality.

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