Legalizing medical marijuana seems to be related to lowered charges of staff lacking work—notably in trades like manufacturing and agriculture the place staff usually tend to expertise signs similar to ache that hashish can assist deal with—in response to a brand new examine.
Researchers on the College of Southern Maine and College of Georgia seemed on the potential influence of state-level marijuana reform on office absenteeism, analyzing federal information from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1990 to 2025.
The examine, printed within the Journal of Office Behavioral Well being, discovered that, general, legalizing medical hashish is linked to a 6.9 % lower in charges of staff calling out of labor resulting from sickness, damage or different medical points.
Notably, the examine—which concerned a complete dataset masking greater than 20 million staff between the ages of 18 and 61—assessed the connection between hashish coverage and office absenteeism for various kinds of work and industries.
“The absenteeism-reducing results of medical hashish decriminalization are concentrated in occupations and industries during which continual ache, bodily pressure, and job-related stress are plausibly necessary determinants of missed work,” the examine mentioned. “Medical hashish legal guidelines seem to cut back illness absence in settings the place therapeutic use is more likely to be most related.”
“This examine identifies a statistically important and quantitatively significant impact of medical hashish legal guidelines in america on lowering health-related office absenteeism.”
It discovered the guide laborers missed work 39 % much less, adopted by lowered absenteeism from industrial machine operators (33 %), health-service staff (32 %), farm staff (18 %), meals preparation staff (10 %) and building staff (10 %).
The industry-by-industry evaluation linked medical hashish legalization to 31 % fewer sick or injured days within the sturdy items manufacturing sector and 16 % for nondurable items manufacturing. Absenteeism decreased on common 16 % for the agriculture {industry}, 9 % for building and eight % for enterprise providers.
“Probably the most substantial reductions” have been “noticed in occupations and industries that contain bodily calls for and repetitive strains of labor,” the examine authors mentioned. “Our outcomes are in step with a therapeutic channel by way of which medical hashish entry improves symptom administration and reduces illness absence.”
Apart from medical hashish insurance policies, examine discovered “no important impact of leisure hashish legalization on health-related office absenteeism.”
“Though the estimated impact of leisure hashish decriminalization was constructive, it was not measured with ample precision to realize statistical significance,” it mentioned.
In the meantime, analysis printed final yr on marijuana legalization’s impact on staff’ compensation discovered that whereas the coverage change was related to a “gradual enhance” in staff’ comp claims, the typical value per declare in reality fell after the coverage change—as did affected person use of pharmaceuticals, particularly opioids and different painkillers.
In 2021, a separate examine by the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis discovered that adult-use hashish legalization was related to a rise in workforce productiveness and reduce in office accidents.
These researchers seemed on the influence of leisure hashish legalization on staff’ compensation claims amongst older adults, observing declines in such filings “each by way of the propensity to obtain advantages and profit quantity” in states which have enacted the coverage change.
They additional recognized “complementary declines in non-traumatic office damage charges and the incidence of work-limiting disabilities” in authorized states.
“We provide proof that the first driver of those reductions [in workers’ compensation] is an enchancment in work capability, doubtless resulting from entry to a further type of ache administration remedy,” says the sooner examine, which obtained funding from the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
A 2020 examine, in the meantime, discovered that legalizing medical marijuana led to fewer and cheaper staff’ compensation claims. Researchers from the College of Cincinnati Ash Blue School and Temple College concluded that allowing medical hashish “can permit staff to raised handle signs related to office accidents and sicknesses and, in flip, scale back want for [workers’ compensation].”
Earlier this month, a congressional committee authorised a invoice containing a provision to block federal staff’ compensation applications from masking medical marijuana—even in gentle of the Trump administration’s transfer to reschedule hashish.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom declined to take up a pair of circumstances regarding staff’ compensation for medical marijuana.
Different analysis from 2023 into worker marijuana use discovered that staff who used the drug off the clock have been no extra more likely to expertise office accidents in comparison with those that didn’t devour hashish in any respect. Nevertheless, individuals who indulged throughout work hours are almost twice as more likely to be concerned in a office incident than each non-users and off-duty customers.
Individually, a 2024 evaluation of 5 years’ value of federal well being survey information by researchers on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) discovered that staff within the meals service and hospitality industries have been among the commonest customers of marijuana amongst U.S. staff.
Individuals in arts, design, leisure, sports activities and media occupations additionally reported comparatively excessive charges of past-month hashish use, as did staff in building and extraction. Amongst these least more likely to report marijuana use, in the meantime, have been legislation enforcement, well being care suppliers and staff in libraries and schooling.