Workplace Study Suggests Medical Cannabis Reduces Employee Absences

Study Links Medical Cannabis Laws to Fewer Missed Workdays

A study published this year in the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health examined more than 20 million U.S. workers using federal labour data from 1990 to 2025. Researchers compared worker absences before and after states brought in medical and recreational cannabis laws.

Workers in states with medical cannabis laws were 6.9 per cent less likely to report missing work because of illness, injury or a medical issue. States with recreational cannabis laws saw no real difference.

The study states that “the absenteeism-reducing effects of medical cannabis decriminalization are concentrated in occupations and industries in which chronic pain, physical strain, and job-related stress are plausibly important determinants of missed work.”

The study notes it does not show causation. Workers were not asked whether they were using medical cannabis.

Experts Point to Stigma and Accommodation

Shawna Meister, associate director of innovation and evidence in practice at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, says employers should create an open environment where an employee “has encouraged the opportunity to talk about accommodations.”

Meister says stigma is not the only factor behind employer struggles with substance-use conversations. “Stigma is certainly one of the risks for preventing, probably, further cooperation or accommodations on challenges, but there’s also workplace culture, there’s also privacy and confidentiality around medical conditions. So, a number of factors come into play,” she says.

Meister explains medical cannabis can contain THC, which can cause impairment, and CBD, which is non-impairing. “Just because we use the term ‘medical cannabis,’ what’s really more important is understanding the content of that cannabis,” she says.

Legal Framework for Employers

Ronald Minken, an employment lawyer at Minken Employment Lawyers, says the most common employer mistakes are treating medical cannabis like recreational cannabis or assuming its use automatically means impairment.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s policy statement says medical cannabis in the workplace should be treated the same as any other prescribed medication. Employees can be accommodated if it relates to a disability and doesn’t interfere with health, safety or their duties.

Minken says medical cannabis can trigger the duty to accommodate but doesn’t automatically give employees the right to use cannabis at work. “The employer accommodates the disability-related need, not an unrestricted right to use cannabis in any manner the employee chooses,” he says.

Accommodation requires a case-by-case assessment, says Minken: “One size fits all does not work.” Accommodations can include adjusted work hours, modified tasks or temporary changes to duties.

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