Well, Canada might want to rethink their policy and learn from what's going on here in the US; As more Americans fail drug tests, employers turn to refugees
The refugees at Sterling come from all over the world, from Syria to Sudan, Chad to Bhutan. And they've all passed the company's standard drug test.
"In our lives, we don't have drugs," said Alzamel, who was hired within three months after arriving in Pennsylvania. "We don't even know what they look like or how to use them."
But for an increasing number of American-born workers, passing drug tests is a big problem.
The percentage of American workers testing positive for illegal drugs has climbed steadily over the last three years to its highest level in a decade, according to Quest Diagnostics, which performed more than 10 million employment drug screenings last year. The increase has been fueled in part by rural America's heroin epidemic and the legalization of recreational marijuana in states like Colorado.
With roughly half of US employers screening for drugs, failed tests have real consequences for the economy.
More than 9% of employees tested positive for one or more drugs in oral fluid screenings in 2015, the most recent year for which data was available. And the problem is even worse at places like Sterling Technologies.
"Twenty percent of the people are failing," said Cary Quigley, the company's president. "We're seeing positive tests anywhere from marijuana through amphetamines, right all the way through crystal meth and heroin."
Nearly 6,000 refugees have settled in the last five years in Louisville, Kentucky, helping companies hire workers for jobs that had gone unfilled. Methamphetamine use is so high in Louisville that the number of people testing positive for meth in workplace drug tests is 47% higher than the national average, according to Quest Diagnostics.
One oil and trucking company in Colorado did random drug screening last year and flunked 80% of their employees, mostly for marijuana, Fay said. Colorado's Supreme Court has ruled that companies may fire employees who smoke pot, even if legally.
"They had to replace everyone," she said. "The employer was glad he found the problem because his employees do extremely dangerous work. He was shocked and disturbed."
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Perhaps Canada is in a rather roundabout way is promoting immigration in some way.