Over the past decade, the United States has seen a significant surge in cannabis drug reform. By the end of 2020, more than 40 states had legalized cannabis for either medical use or recreational use. Although the upsurge in cannabis legalization bills has resulted in a significant increase in tax revenue for these states and helped to reinvest in communities that were most affected by the war on drugs, not everyone is happy about legal cannabis. Employers, for instance, worry that cannabis use by their employees may hinder productivity, ultimately impacting companies’ bottom lines.
However, new research unveiled by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows interesting findings. Employers may actually cut costs as injured workers in states with recreational cannabis markets tend to claim cheaper workers’ compensation. A worker compensation fund is used to pay injured employees who are unable to work, and employers pay into the fund to keep it active.
Research by the bureau found that older workers living in states that legalized full recreational cannabis use from 2010 to 2018 filed fewer worker compensation claims. And when these workers did file a claim, the payouts were usually smaller than average. Economists at the RAND Corporation, the University of Cincinnati, Temple University and William Paterson University found that when workers who are in pain can easily use cannabis to manage chronic pain, their need for worker’s compensation reduces.
Many people use recreational marijuana medicinally once their states legalize adult use, says Catherine Maclean, a professor at Temple University and one of the authors of the study. She is backed up by several surveys, which have found over the years that plenty of people are interested in marijuana’s health benefits not just getting stoned. To arrive at their conclusions, Maclean and her team reviewed surveys by the Bureau of Statistics that question a cumulative 500,000 people.
After learning how many people filed for workers’ compensation and the amounts they received, the researchers compared the data with recreational cannabis policies through the years. They found that in states with legal recreational cannabis markets, 20% fewer employees aged 40 to 62 had received workers’ compensation in the past year compared to hypothetical models from states that did not allow recreational use. Compared to the $100 workers’ compensation payout, these states had an average payout of $21.98.
The study noted that being able to keep working boosts employees’ earning potential over their lifetimes as well as life satisfaction. Although the researchers didn’t support a position for or against legal recreational markets, they noted that it is clear that such markets allow workers, especially the elderly who are more susceptible to injuries, to have a “better work capacity.”
Meanwhile, a variety of companies are reaping the benefits of the growing awareness of the benefits of cannabis. For example, Gage Growth Corp. (d.b.a. Gage Cannabis) has been seeing average customer purchases that are more than twice the average basket size. This is remarkable performance for a company that is only a few years old in this market.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Gage Cannabis are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/GAGE
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