Kansas City above national average for positive drug tests

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A recent study shows that positive drug tests at the workplace have decreased across the country.

Not in Kansas City. Residents there are more likely than the rest of the country to test positive for a wide range of drugs, including marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and PCP.

Quest Diagnostics, a New Jersey firm that conducts more than eight million employee drug tests a year, found that residents in the Kansas City area are 80 percent more likely to test positive for amphetamines than the national average, 60 percent more for marijuana and 30 percent more for cocaine.

Positive PCP tests jumped significantly between 2005 and 2007, with Kansas Citians being 10 times more likely to be found with the drug in their system than the rest of the country.

"We lead the Midwest in that," said Ron Griffin, vice president of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Greater Kansas City. "We've got more PCP than anyone else."

Kansas City was one of 38 U.S. cities that sustained a cocaine shortage in 2007. There's also been a rise in prices and a decline in purity of the drug. That didn't stop people in Kansas City -- the area had a 46 percent increase in positive drug screens, the highest in the country.

The high number of positive drug tests are nothing new in Kansas City, though. A 2006 report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that Jackson County's estimated drug use was higher than the national average.

Kansas City is also a "significant consumer market" with excellent transportation resources and is a major shipping point for drugs and money to narcotics markets across the nation, according to 2008 report from the National Drug Intelligence Center.

"You've got people trying to get employed, but can't, and positions that need to be filled, but aren't," Griffin said. "So we, as an entire community, are suffering. It shows we need a more focused effort on prevention and intervention."

But not everyone sees the high number of positive tests as a negative.

Jim Nunnelly, administrator of Jackson County's COMBAT anti-drug program, says the number of positive screenings may be the result of the area investing in programs to deal with the issue, making it better at identifying drug abuse.

The positive tests also mean fewer drug users are making their way into the work force.

"We have lots of treatment programs and diversion programs," Nunnelly said. "It's easier to address drug problems here."