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• Posted September 5, 2024

Marijuana Use Raises Workers' Absenteeism Rate: Study

The stereotype of the slacker stoner might not be too far off the mark, a new study shows.

People who use weed are prone to workplace absenteeism -- and the more problematic the cannabis use, the more likely they are to skip work, results showed.

“These findings underscore the importance of developing and implementing strategies to monitor, screen and intervene with individuals at risk for problematic cannabis use,” concluded the research team led by Dr. Kevin Yang, a psychiatric resident with the University of California, San Diego.

“To address these issues, workplace prevention programs focusing on education, screening and access to treatment are imperative,” the team said in the paper, which was published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 46,500 people gathered in 2021 and 2022 as part of the National Survey on Drug Use.

Nearly 16% of full-time employed adults in the survey said they’d used weed in the past month, and almost 7% appeared to have cannabis use disorder, researchers found.

People were more likely to skip work if they’d used weed in the past moth, results showed.

Those who used the drug once or twice were 57% more likely to skip work than non-users, while those who used 20 to 30 days were 83% more likely to shrug off their work responsibilities, researchers found.

Weed use also was associated with an increased likelihood someone would miss work due to injury or illness.

Further, a person’s level of cannabis use disorder directly impacted how often they skipped work, researchers found.

Workers with the most severe cannabis use disorder (CUD) were 2.8 times as likely to miss work as people who never use weed.

By comparison, those with moderate CUD were twice as likely to skip work, and those with mild use disorder were 60% more likely to miss work.

Marijuana can cause reduced motivation and other brain changes, which might explain why tokers are more likely to skip work, the researchers said.

“With regard to skipping work, common stereotypes suggest that cannabis makes users ‘lazy,’ and there is research supporting that cannabis consumption can lead to reduced motivation and cognitive changes,” the researchers wrote. “This phenomenon may partially explain why individuals with cannabis use and CUD are more likely to skip work.”

Cannabis use also has been linked to factors that can contribute to increased absenteeism, like anxiety, panic attacks, depression, sleep disturbances, respiratory problems and vehicle accidents, the researchers wrote.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about weed and brain health.

SOURCE: American Psychiatric Association, news release, Aug. 26, 2024