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Medical Marijuana and Your Workers' Compensation Claim
Posted by: Amy Eaton-Fitzpatrick
December 20, 2011
Topic: Workers' Compensation
In November 2000, Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, which legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes by patients with certain debilitating medical conditions. Since November 2000, the number of medical marijuana users in the state has grown. This creates complications for a workers' compensation claim.
Pinnacol Assurance, one of the biggest insurers for workers' compensation injuries in the State of Colorado, put out a newsletter in February 2010, suggesting several ways in which an injured worker can be penalized for using medical marijuana. For example, Pinnacol Assurance points out in its newsletter that, although medical marijuana has been legalized in Colorado, it remains illegal on a federal level. As a consequence, physicians are only permitted to "recommend" medical marijuana, not prescribe it. Because medical marijuana cannot be "prescribed," it qualifies as a "not medically prescribed controlled substance," and the presence of marijuana in your system allows a workers' compensation insurer, such as Pinnacol, to reduce your indemnity (i.e., wage replacement) benefits by 50% for intoxication or for violation of a safety rule if it is found in your system at the time your work injury occurred.
Pinnacol Assurance also points out that, under Amendment 20, nothing in the medical marijuana law "requires any employer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any workplace." As such, Pinnacol Assurance suggests that an employer can institute policies against the use or possession of medical marijuana at work. So, if you are an injured worker, you start using medical marijuana and the employer asks you to return to modified employment, the employer can terminate you for cause if you test positive for marijuana after you start the modified employment, regardless of whether you are using the marijuana legally under state law or not.
The use of medical marijuana in a workers' compensation claim is also problematic because it raises a lot of issues. There is a pervasive concern that it is easy to get a medical marijuana license and that the people who use medical marijuana may not really need the drug. Questions also arise regarding whether a person legitimately needing the drug is using the drug appropriately or is abusing it to excess. Some treating physicians will refuse to prescribe any narcotic medications if you are using medical marijuana because the use violates the medication contract you have to sign with the treating physician.
So, if you have a workers' compensation injury and you have a medical marijuana card, you need to be wary. Even if you are legally entitled to use medical marijuana, such use can significantly complicate your workers' compensation case in a number of ways.
