Business
Study Finds 14% Use Cannabis For Work-Related Injuries
One in seven employees who received workers’ compensation for a work-related injury used medical cannabis during their recovery, according to the results of a recent Canadian study.
Slightly more than 14% of workers recovering from an on-the-job injury used cannabis to help them recover, according to the results of a recent study conducted in Canada, where marijuana has been legalized for both medical and recreational purposes.
To complete the study, which was published this month by BMJ Open Journals, researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto surveyed almost 1,200 Canadians who had received workers’ compensation for an employment-related injury or sickness.
The researchers interviewed the study participants 18 months and 36 months after their injury or illness. Participants were asked about their use of cannabis over the past year, including questions about whether their use was for the treatment of their work-related condition.
Participants were sorted into three groups including those with no past-year cannabis use, those who used cannabis for their work-related injury and respondents who use cannabis unrelated to the workplace injury. Researchers then compared sociodemographic, work and health characteristics across the groups, and reported on the participants’ reasons and patterns for cannabis use, its perceived impacts and patients’ engagement with their healthcare providers.
One In Seven Injured Workers Used Medical Cannabis
Among all respondents, 14.1% (about one in seven) said that they used cannabis medicinally specifically to treat their job-related injuries. In general, the respondents who used medical cannabis to treat their work-related injuries reported experiencing higher levels of pain and more disruption to their sleep than the workers who did not use medical cannabis. About 13% reported cannabis use not related to their workplace injury.
Additionally, most workers who used medical marijuana for their workplace injuries did not discuss their use with their healthcare provider. Other research in both Canada and the United States has shown that many healthcare professionals believe that they have not been adequately prepared to discuss medical cannabis with their patients.
In their conclusion, the researchers wrote that the study gives new insight into the medicinal use of cannabis by workers who are injured on the job.
“Our study provides novel information on workers’ use of cannabis for their work-related conditions, a population for which little data exist,” the authors of the study wrote, adding, “Findings of this study demonstrate workers are turning to cannabis many months following the onset of their original work-related condition.”
The authors of the study recommended that healthcare providers treating patients for work-related injuries talk to them about medical cannabis.
“Although these workers report a beneficial impact of cannabis on their health, they are often using cannabis without medical guidance,” the authors noted. “It is important that healthcare providers caring for injured workers engage in conversations about the potential benefits and risks associated with the therapeutic use of cannabis.”
Workers’ Comp For MMJ
In an analysis of the research, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) noted that U.S. courts have been inconsistent in decisions about whether workers’ compensation should cover medical cannabis in states that have legalized its use. While most states have not explicitly weighed in on the issue, six states including Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania currently allow worker’s compensation insurance reimbursements for medical cannabis use for a work-related injury. However, seven states—Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, North Dakota, Ohio and Washington—have policies that specifically prohibit such reimbursements.
“Most patients, most physicians, and most state laws view cannabis as a legitimate therapeutic option,” NORML deputy director Paul Armentano wrote in an op-ed from the cannabis reform policy group. “Therefore, the millions of Americans who rely upon medical cannabis products ought to be afforded the same entitlements as those who use other conventional medications and therapies. Those privileges should include insurance-provided reimbursement for medical cannabis treatment.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/study/study-finds-14-use-cannabis-for-work-related-injuries/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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