Marijuana use has a positive impact on consumers’ careers, a poll says

According to a recent poll, a majority of marijuana users say that their cannabis use has had a positive impact on their career.

NuggMD’s medical cannabis platform asked the following question in its survey: Has cannabis use had any positive or negative impact on your job?

Of the 54 percent respondents, 28 percent said that their career progress was “very positive” as a result of their marijuana use.

Only 10 percent reported that using cannabis negatively affected their work, while the other 36 percent claimed it didn’t have an impact.

Andrew Graham is the head of NuggMD’s communications. He told MEDCAN24: “Prohibitionists still try to push the falsehood that marijuana access leads to workplace amotivation. Since they tend to all read the same old playbook, I wouldn’t be surprised if that accusation was actually true.

The polling data doesn’t exactly say that, but it does point in the right direction. Wellness-minded employers should learn more about the way today’s workers use cannabis. The evidence is growing that this could be a workplace benefit.

A total of 493 marijuana-consuming consumers were interviewed between July 3-20. There was an error margin of 4.4 points.

The survey, which is subjective and based on the career experiences of cannabis users themselves, disrupts prohibitionist myths about potential workplace harms.

Other studies have addressed the topic in various ways.

In 2021, for example, a study partially funded by the federal government found that legalizing adult use is linked to an increase in productivity in the workplace and fewer injuries.

Researchers in 2023 who were involved with a different study concluded that marijuana users who are off-the-clock do not have a higher risk of workplace injury compared to workers who never use cannabis. They questioned “overly expansive” zero tolerance policies.

A more recent study on marijuana legalization’s effect on workers’ compensation found that while the policy change is associated with a “gradual increase” in workers’ comp claims, the average cost per claim in fact fell after the policy change—as did patient use of prescription drugs, especially opioids and other painkillers.

Separately, an analysis last year of five years’ worth of federal health survey data by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that employees in the food service and hospitality industries were some of the most common consumers of marijuana among U.S. workers.

Workers in the construction industry and in extraction also had high cannabis usage rates in the past month. The least likely group to disclose marijuana usage was law enforcement and health care workers, as well as those in education and libraries.

Martin Alonso is the photographer.