Washington, DC—At least 27 people are dead and more feared lost after a passenger ferry carrying more than 179 people capsized off the coast of Guyana over the weekend. Guyanese authorities have opened a criminal investigation, and both the ferry’s captain and at least one other crew member — who were rescued — have tested positive for marijuana and remain in police custody.
“We have a zero tolerance for members of the crew drinking or smoking while at work. And for us to have positive tests from the captain, this is serious,” Public Works Minister Juan Edghill told the Associated Press.
The tragedy is a warning the United States cannot afford to ignore, as marijuana use climbs among American workers and a recent Wall Street Journal report confirms “fewer employers are concerned” about workers testing positive for marijuana.
Dr. Kevin Sabet, President of SAM and a former White House drug policy advisor, released the following statement:
“This is what happens when we tell people marijuana is harmless and that using it is nobody’s business but their own. A ferry captain responsible for the lives of more than 175 passengers is alleged to have used marijuana before that boat went down. Dozens of families are grieving because of it.
“For years, the legalization lobby has sold marijuana as a purely personal choice — an individual liberty issue, no different than what you have for breakfast. It is not. The moment marijuana use puts someone behind the wheel of a bus, in the cockpit of a plane, at the controls of heavy machinery, or at the helm of a ferry, it stops being that person’s business alone. It becomes everyone else’s business too, because it’s their safety on the line. That is precisely why marijuana use cannot be waved away as a private matter of individual freedom.”
“We know it is happening here in America right now, because the data tell us so. Quest Diagnostics’ 2026 Drug Testing Index found that marijuana positivity in hair tests among American workers has surged nearly 59 percent in five years, with nearly one in five workers testing positive on a test that reflects months of use. Retail workers — the people stocking shelves and ringing up customers — are testing positive for marijuana at the highest rate of any worker category, 7.6 percent. Healthcare workers, who hold people’s lives in their hands every day, have the highest overall drug positivity of any industry. Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, more employers are simply looking away, dropping pre-employment marijuana screening and treating a positive test as no big deal.”
“That is precisely the mindset that leads to tragedies like the one in Guyana. Normalizing marijuana does not just change what happens in someone’s living room. It changes who shows up impaired to safety-sensitive jobs, and it changes who pays the price when something goes wrong. We hope this disaster serves as a wake-up call for American employers, regulators, and parents alike – not just a headline that fades in a news cycle.”
The Numbers:
- According to the 2026 Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index:
- Hair test positivity among American workers reached 19.1% in 2025, up nearly 46% from 13.1% in 2021 — a marker of recurring or chronic drug use.
- 15.1% of workers screened by hair test were positive for marijuana, up 58.9% from five years ago; marijuana accounted for 52.5% of all hair drug positives in 2025.
- Overall workforce urine drug positivity has remained above 4% for more than a decade.
- Healthcare workers had the highest overall drug positivity of any industry, at 5.8%; retail trade workers had the highest marijuana positivity of any worker category, at 7.6%.
The Wall Street Journal reported this month that even as positivity rates climb, fewer employers are concerned: major companies including Citigroup, AutoNation, Home Depot, and Amazon have dropped pre-employment marijuana testing in recent years, and outside of trucking, construction, and other safety-sensitive industries, many employers now treat marijuana like alcohol — not a red flag as long as workers aren’t using on the clock.