SURVEY: Does Cannabis Increase Workplace Safety?
- New Statistics Show 34% Decrease in Workplace Injuries
- Decline Occurred After Cannabis Legalization
A recent report has emerged that has left cannabis legalization critics somewhat perplexed.
States where cannabis was permitted for medical or recreational use now observe a drastic 34% reduction in workplace injuries. Specifically, this measured fatalities among employees aged 25 to 44. The reason?
Employees in states where medical cannabis is legal are less prone to frequent alcohol consumption and taking various pain or depression medications.
Connections Between Cannabis Legalization and Workplace Injuries
Since 1996, cannabis has been authorized for medical, recreational, or both purposes in the USA. Throughout the gradual loosening of cannabis laws, legislators faced strong opposition.
The opposition primarily relied on arguments like "cannabis increases injury risk and deteriorates employee work capabilities".
As always, arguments were repeatedly made about how cannabis allegedly impairs cognitive abilities to such an extent that employees would behave undisciplined, careless, or clumsy, which would subsequently lead to reduced work morale, injuries, and ultimately deaths.
Interestingly, the longer cannabis is legal in a state, the lower the number of workplace injuries.
The misleading logic of the opposition, which has long considered cannabis risky, led to the possibility of employers punishing cannabis users.
Let's say you smoked some cannabis in April. A standard drug test could detect such activity even on June first. In contrast, a weekend drinker often passes a drug test immediately on Monday.
However, since the gradual legalization of cannabis began, approximately 23 years have passed, and we can now finally look at what hard data shows us.
Key indicators can be found in a 2018 study published in the scientific journal "Journal of Drug Policy".
Researchers D. Mark Anderson, Daniel I. Rees, and Erdal Tekin analyzed data from all fifty US states during this research. Moreover, the collected data covered a long period from 1992 to 2015.
The average decline in workplace accidents among employees aged 25 to 44 is around 20%.
Over time, however, the percentage reduction in injury rates climbed to 33.7%.
This statistic is now clearly an indicator that cannabis not only does not increase the likelihood of workplace injuries but may actually protect against them.
How this reduction occurs remains a subject of ongoing research.
Young Employees Benefit Most from Legalization
In the USA, an average of 14 employees die in workplaces daily.
Construction work is typically the most dangerous, responsible for one in five fatal workplace accidents. These most often involve deaths from falling, being struck by objects, electrical shock, or crushing.
Interestingly, the largest decline in fatalities was observed among young employees.
"We found that changes in cannabis usage laws most significantly affect young employees."
Why Workplace Injuries Decline After Cannabis Legalization
The numbers speak clearly – permitting cannabis for medical or recreational purposes reduces workplace accidents.
However, the mechanism behind this reduction remains uncertain.
"We have not yet precisely identified how cannabis legalization is capable of reducing injury rates," explains Anderson in an interview. "After all, we can only speculate."
Nevertheless, one speculation makes quite good sense. It's quite possible that existing users of other legal drugs simply replaced them with cannabis.
Less Problematic Alcohol Consumption
A previous study by the same research team indicates a 5% reduction in alcohol consumption in states where cannabis was legalized.
Another study associated legalization with decreased traffic accidents. Traffic accidents naturally form a significant portion of workplace accident statistics.
Furthermore, cannabis legalization is also linked to reduced suicide rates among adolescents. This decline can theoretically be connected to decreased alcohol consumption.
Cannabis as a Better Pain Relief
Medical cannabis and its legalization are additionally associated with 20 to 30% declines in deaths caused by opiate overdoses.
This statistic is particularly interesting in connection with workplace injuries.
The study by the aforementioned research team observed the highest reduction in fatality rates in states where chronic pain was a qualifying condition for cannabis prescription.
More Research is Still Needed
Researchers ultimately mention that further, thorough research is still required to create a final opinion and definitively describe this issue.
"Future investigation of this matter is still necessary. We must determine whether increased cannabis usage and workplace accident reduction can be linked to decreased consumption of legal consciousness-altering substances. We are naturally talking about alcohol and legal pharmaceutical opiates."
There is still a need for a thorough description of the mechanisms surrounding workplace injuries and medical cannabis.
However, the old familiar concern that cannabis usage would directly threaten employee health and safety is now quite certainly dispelled.
Author: Emily Earlenbaugh
Source: Earlenbaugh, Emily. "Workplace Deaths Fell 34% After Medical Cannabis Legalization." Leafly, 29 May 2019, www.leafly.com/news/politics/workplace-deaths-fell-34-after-medical-cannabis-legalization.