A new study on marijuana legalization’s effect on workers’ compensation finds that while the policy change is associated with a “gradual increase” in workers’ comp claims, the average cost per claim in fact fell after the policy change—as did patient use of prescription drugs, especially opioids and other painkillers.
The report, from the nonprofit Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), tracks what researchers described as “complex effects” that adult-use marijuana legalization has on both work injury risks themselves and the costs of workers’ compensation claims.
One one hand, for example, the study says that recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) “led to a gradual increase in frequency of workers’ compensation claims in the years following RML adoption.”
On average, over a period of 1.7 years after legalization, states saw the frequency of workers’ comp claims increase by 7.7 percent. After five years, that increase had jumped to 15 percent.
On the other hand, the report says, “the average medical payment per claim decreased after the adoption of RMLs, partly driven by decreases in prescription utilization and costs.” Specifically, it says adult-use cannabis legalization “reduced medical payments per claim by $207 (or 5.7 percent) at 12 months of maturity.”
Read the full article at Marijuana Moment
