Marijuana developments continue to occur across the country, and two recent proposals could have direct implications for workers’ comp.
Massachusetts House Bill 2169 was introduced, which would require workers’ comp programs to reimburse medical marijuana provided to injured employees who are qualifying patients, or their personal caregiver, certified by a healthcare professional. This bill was introduced at the end of February and sits in a committee on Labor and Workforce Development.
In other news, the California Department of Industrial Relations held a public hearing on adopting proposed evidence-based updates to the medical treatment utilization schedule (MTUS). This included updates from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) for Chronic Pain Guidelines and the Cannabis Guideline.
The updated Cannabis Guideline, released January 28, 2025, gives a status of “Not Recommended” for medical marijuana for the treatment of chronic pain, acute pain, post-operative pain, and for safety-critical workers.
Safety-critical workers were defined as jobs that “include the operation of motor vehicles, forklifts, overhead cranes, heavy equipment, or other modes of transportation; sharps works (e.g., knives); work with injury risks (e.g., heights); and tasks involving high levels of cognitive function and judgment.”
The scope of this evidence-based guidelines is on the treatment of pain ensuing from disorders that have a reasonable probability of being work-related and does not include other conditions such as terminal care, PTSD, sleep disturbance, epilepsy, and more.
