Legal Weed Could Reduce Workers' Comp Claims, NJ Professor Says

WAYNE, NJ — Discussions about marijuana and work often start and end with one popular trope: it makes you lazy. But what if cannabis actually allows you to work more effectively?

One William Paterson professor found that workers' compensation claims are likely to decline as legal marijuana continues to proceed in New Jersey. This is the result of fewer mistakes and greater work capacity due in large part to cannabis use for pain management among the aging workforce, researchers found.

Rahi Abouk is a health economics professor, and director of the Cannabis Research Institute, at William Paterson University. Abouk is also the lead author of this recent study, titled "Does Marijuana Legalization Affect Work Capacity? Evidence from Workers’ Compensation Benefit", which is published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The study focuses on the impact of state recreational marijuana laws on workers' compensation claims among adults between the ages of 40-62.

What researchers found is that claims decline, as do non-traumatic workplace injuries and the frequency of work limiting disabilities, as the aging workforce transitions away from traditionally prescribed pain medication to marijuana.

"We found that this population group substitutes cannabis for other pain medication treatments such as opioids, which improves their capacity to work, thereby making fewer mistakes and reducing injuries," said Abouk.

Researchers studied surveys and data from 2010-2018 which dealt with workers' compensation claims, cannabis and pain medication drugs. What they found is that "propensity to file workers’ compensation claims and annual income from workers’ compensation decline by 20 percent after recreational marijuana is legalized."

The study also provides insight into how a portion of citizens are using the substance.

"This is important because it sheds light on how older adults in the U.S. are using recreational cannabis as a pain medication and how it affects the labor market outcome, such as workers’ compensation claims and the likelihood of having limited disabilities," said Abouk.

New Jersey became the 13th state to legalize weed on Monday.

Though data on workers' compensation claims and marijuana aren't yet available in the Garden State, there are still elements of the new bills being sorted out. Read more: Marijuana Is Now Officially Legal In New Jersey

The Attorney General cleared up a few of those elements in two documents Monday. Read more: NJ Low-Level Marijuana Arrests To Stop, Charges To Be Dismissed

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