The nation’s leading tester of drugs in the workplace, Quest Diagnostics, said last month that last year, it gave 6 million drug tests to the general workforce and charted an 8 percent decline in the detection of amphetamines from the previous year, reports Slate.com. In the first five months of 2006, the number of positives dropped another 10 percent. The news was not reported in many major newspapers. Drug czar John Walters said there was a 45 percent reduction in meth-only use.” Slate press critic Jack Shafer said the figure went unreported by the news media.
Shafer also took issue with a USA Today story excerpted in Crime & Justice News about a survey showing that 1 in 5 Adults Have a Close Relative Who Is or Was Addicted to Drugs or Alcohol. Shafer says the question doesn’t define addiction and says “a strict definition would surely reduce the 1-in-5 number.” He also cites the imprecise question referring to close relatives. Shafer says, “Gung-ho respondents might include grandparents or cousins if they served surrogate roles as parents or siblings.