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States with legal medical marijuana have seen a drop in workplace deaths
I'm clearing out old email.
States with legal medical marijuana have seen a drop in workplace deaths
Andy Kiersz
Jan. 1, 2020, 03:15 PM
• Recreational marijuana is now legal in Illinois as of January 1, 2020.
• A recent study suggests that states that adopt medical marijuana laws see a decline in workplace fatalities among young adult workers.
• The study's authors suggest this could happen because young adults in those states use marijuana instead of more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
As of January 1, 2020, the sale of recreational marijuana is legal in Illinois.
Recent years have seen several states loosening up recreational and medical marijuana laws, and the widespread adoption of medical marijuana laws may be having an unexpected effect: making workplaces safer.
A recent study seems to suggest that states with such laws saw a subsequent drop in the number of workplace fatalities among young adult workers.
The study, by economists Mark Anderson of Montana State University, Daniel Rees of the University of Colorado, and Erdal Tekin of American University in the October 2018 issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, looked at how fatal workplace injuries changed after states adopted medical marijuana laws.
The biggest result that they found was a 19.5% decrease in fatal work injuries among 25- to 44-year-old workers in states that adopted medical marijuana laws, after controlling for various demographic and economic factors. While the analysis found a smaller reduction in fatalities for older and younger workers (and for the entire pool of workers overall), after the adoption of medical marijuana, those results fell below the standard of statistical significance.
The authors suggested that a possible reason for the decline in fatal work injuries for young adult workers could be a result of medical marijuana use as a substitute for more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids. They wrote, "because the use of alcohol at work is associated with a substantial increase in the risk of injury, and because non-habitual opioid use slows reflexes and impairs cognitive functioning, the enactment of MMLs [medical marijuana laws] could, in theory, make workplaces safer."
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Andy Kiersz
Jan. 1, 2020, 03:15 PM
• Recreational marijuana is now legal in Illinois as of January 1, 2020.
• A recent study suggests that states that adopt medical marijuana laws see a decline in workplace fatalities among young adult workers.
• The study's authors suggest this could happen because young adults in those states use marijuana instead of more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
As of January 1, 2020, the sale of recreational marijuana is legal in Illinois.
Recent years have seen several states loosening up recreational and medical marijuana laws, and the widespread adoption of medical marijuana laws may be having an unexpected effect: making workplaces safer.
A recent study seems to suggest that states with such laws saw a subsequent drop in the number of workplace fatalities among young adult workers.
The study, by economists Mark Anderson of Montana State University, Daniel Rees of the University of Colorado, and Erdal Tekin of American University in the October 2018 issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, looked at how fatal workplace injuries changed after states adopted medical marijuana laws.
The biggest result that they found was a 19.5% decrease in fatal work injuries among 25- to 44-year-old workers in states that adopted medical marijuana laws, after controlling for various demographic and economic factors. While the analysis found a smaller reduction in fatalities for older and younger workers (and for the entire pool of workers overall), after the adoption of medical marijuana, those results fell below the standard of statistical significance.
The authors suggested that a possible reason for the decline in fatal work injuries for young adult workers could be a result of medical marijuana use as a substitute for more dangerous drugs like alcohol and opioids. They wrote, "because the use of alcohol at work is associated with a substantial increase in the risk of injury, and because non-habitual opioid use slows reflexes and impairs cognitive functioning, the enactment of MMLs [medical marijuana laws] could, in theory, make workplaces safer."
{snip}
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