Earlier this week, we wrote about the drug bust at a Pennsylvania Boeing manufacturing plant. During the raid, which followed a four-year investigation into alleged drug distribution and trafficking at the plant, more than 30 people were arrested and charged with drug possession and various other drug crimes.

In the wake of the alleged drug bust, federal drug authorities are indicating that the Boeing plant is just one example of the growing problem of prescription drug abuse by workers in Pennsylvania and throughout the country.

According to Quest Diagnostics, the largest drug tester for employers in the U.S., most employer drug tests are only looking for illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and meth. As a result, only 12 percent of the 4.5 million drug tests conducted by Quest in 2010 tested for Oxycontin, one of the most commonly abused prescription medications.

In addition, Quest says, approximately 75 percent of employee drug tests take place before employment begins. Therefore, employees who develop addiction problems after they start a job tend not to be detected by their employers.

Federal authorities are not only concerned about on-the-job drug use. According to a yearly survey conducted by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 2.7 percent of Americans reported using prescription medications for non-medical reasons last year. In addition, the number of people who sought treatment for prescription painkiller abuse jumped by 400 percent from 2000 to 2010.

In response to these and other statistics, the Obama administration recently created an initiative to fight what it calls a prescription drug abuse epidemic. There is no word yet on how this program will affect state or federal drug crime laws.

Source: Reuters, "Boeing arrest points to US workplace drug problems," Anna Yuknahanov, Sept. 30, 2011