Canadian study raises questions about recovery – and employers must tread carefully, says lawyer
As Canada marks the fifth anniversary of cannabis legalization, its impact on the workplace may have been less than originally anticipated.
But employers should be aware that there is a potentially significant percentage of workers who are self-medicating after workplace injuries.
In a new study published by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), around one in seven workers (14.1%) of employees who were injured or became ill for a work-related reason were using cannabis to treat such issues as pain, anxiety and depression 18 to 36 months after an incident.
And among those using cannabis for their work-related condition, two-thirds (67.3 per cent) did so without receiving guidance on therapeutic cannabis use from a health-care provider, found the study.
Using cannabis therapeutically
For the study, 1,196 participants who had a Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) claim after a physical injury or illness were asked about their cannabis use.
And the the injured/ill workers who used cannabis to treat their work-related conditions were more likely to report:
- using cannabis daily
- using cannabis for a mix of medical or and non-medical purposes, with pain, sleep, and mental health most frequently cited as medical reasons
- being able to decrease their use of prescription medications and alcohol in the past year as a result of their cannabis use
- experiencing beneficial impact of cannabis use on their physical and mental health.
However, these workers also:
- experienced financial difficulties and longer WSIB claim durations
- were not receiving health-care for their condition
- experienced quite a bit or extreme pain interference with their work, and greater pain intensity due to their work-related condition
- experienced poor general health, greater psychological distress, and sleep difficulties.
“What we found was that the group of workers who said that they were using cannabis for their work injury or illness tended to be struggling more with their recovery. They tended to experience more pain, more sleep difficulties, worse mental health,” says Nancy Carnide, scientist at IWH in Toronto.
As to whether they had received health-care guidance on the cannabis use, about 33 per cent said yes, says Carnide, “but that leaves two-thirds of that group who are saying, ‘I’m using this for my conditions, but I have not received any guidance from my healthcare provider,’ whether that be around benefits or risks.”
Legal considerations around cannabis use
While these figures may show that there is a significant cohort of employees becoming dependent on cannabis, legally there is not much that can be done, says an employment lawyer.
“It’s the old adage that an employer is not the custodian of their employee’s character, which really means what happens outside of work is generally not the employer’s business. That extends to things like personal health decisions, and how a person chooses to treat whatever condition they’re treating,” says Mike MacLellan, partner at Crawford Chondon & Partners in Brampton, Ont.
“Certainly, an employee doesn’t need to tell their employer when they’re on a prescription for a medical event that has nothing to do with their work.”
However, that only applies to certain types of jobs, he says.
“If it is an in-person job that is safety-sensitive, I am giving my client the exact opposite advice. Not only is this your business, it is your responsibility to ensure the health and safety of the workplace. You should take immediate steps to investigate what’s happening and make the appropriate decision on whether the person is allowed to be in the workplace.
“If the self-medication is impacting the employee’s ability to do the job, then yeah, it becomes the employer’s business.”
An Ontario mine employee recently lost an arbitration case and was terminated after a serious incident happened when he was impaired from cannabis use.
Testing for cannabis impairment at work
In the years since legalization, the stigma around cannabis use is calming down, says MacLellan.
“By and large, employers are accepting that it’s a lifestyle choice no different than somebody who drinks alcohol. In that way, employers are a little bit less troubled by it. But there still is some residual [concern] if the person was smoking before the shift or the night before the shift and smells like it, what are our obligations, responsibilities and rights?”
Random testing for workers at nuclear facilities was recently upheld, after a Federal Court ruling.
Organizations cannot ignore the potential repercussions of cannabis on the workplace, he says.
“If it’s impairing, and you’re in a safety-sensitive position, in all likelihood, you can’t come to work in that state and then the employer has the right and responsibility under occupational health and safety laws, to take appropriate steps to find out what’s going on; what the potential dangers are and how to deal with it.”
If general or individual concerns do arise in the workplace, they should be addressed, says MacLellan.
“Even if it is something as simple as, ‘Hey, you really smell like it this morning, what’s going on?’ or ‘Is there something we need to talk about?’ or ‘Here’s what we’re noticing about your behaviour.’ It may or may not be related to cannabis but the bottom line is the employer has to be responsible for its workplace.
“If you want and you need your employees to meet a certain standard, meet certain expectations, they have to know what those standards and expectations are.”
