I've used it medically since I was a teen, with breaks when employers were assholes about it.
I've found lately that the intake levels required to help with chronic pain when it gets bad send me to the couch rather than desk.
But still, I had spinal fusion 6 months ago, it is helping me recover without opiates post surgery, and I'm able to work.

A pain Dr. I saw years ago had a sign that said "If Marijuana is medicine, then so is beer".
I told him I agreed
Beer is good medicine too.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Positive test is still a fire able offense at work, prescription or not. Heck, I was worried about getting a random check after the Stephen Marley show.

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add a signature since I'm here in profile anyway

Same here, there are a lot of "have you ever" questions that have to be answered truthfully and a poly is always a possibility.
Doesn't matter if you lived in Amsterdam or Colorado or vacationed in places where it legal, for some jobs you just can't.

I'm ok with that, but also have nothing against MM and think it is stupid to have people doing 20 years for a small bag of grass.

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If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC - KV

The federal government and federally regulated employers in sensitive industries do not recognize state-level laws regarding "federally illegal" drugs.

FWIW, Marinol (dronabinol) is approved by the FDA, so if you have a legitimate medical need for THC, you can get a federally approved prescription for it.

Theoretically then, if you test positive for THC or certain metabolites from gummies or state-level dispensary products, but have a legit Rx for Marinol, you can try and play that card.

Down at the detailed level, tests can discern the difference between Marinol use and MMJ use, so if your employer really wants to push the issue, they can still bust you for the MMJ.

If it's only Marinol, certain employers might still have a problem with it, but if you're not high at work, they shouldn't. Hell, I was working on opioid pain meds after my shoulder surgeries, and the subject never came up.

If your employer is likely to have an issue, you can either ask HR, or just hope they never find out. The latter may be your only option, as typical HR departments aren't very accommodating or proactive when it comes to working out details of a new scenario.

If you do get in trouble at work (either for Marinol or MMJ), there would probably be more leniency based on legitimacy; e.g., you got the Rx for cancer rather than anxiety, and you got it from an oncologist rather than a chiropractor.

Several states have passed laws that prevent employers from taking action against you simply for having metabolites in your system if they can't prove active influence/intoxication at work. But some of those states still have exceptions that defer to federal law in federally regulated jobs.

The Hill

Medical marijuana associated with reduced pain and opioid related outcomes in cancer patients

Chia-Yi Hou
Thu, December 1, 2022 at 11:26 AM


Marijuana for medical use has been legalized in many states.

Cancer patients in particular may benefit from medical marijuana for managing pain and symptoms.

An analysis of insurance claims suggests that the legalization of medical marijuana is associated with reduced opioid dispensing and pain-related hospital visits.

A new study finds a link between the legalization of medical marijuana and a reduction in the rate of opioid dispensing and pain-related hospital events in some cancer patients.

In a paper published in the journal JAMA Oncology, researchers look at insurance claims data from 2012 to 2017 for patients with breast, colorectal and lung cancers. Overall, they had data on nearly 60,000 patients between the ages of 18 and 64.

In 2012, there were 34 states where medical marijuana was not legalized. By 2017, 14 of them had implemented legalized medical marijuana. Another of the key changes was whether states allowed retail dispensaries, which increases availability and access.

For patients with lung cancer and recent access to opioids, medical marijuana legalization was associated with a reduction in pain-related hospital visits, from 19 to 13 percent. These reductions occurred soon after legalization.

For all types of cancer, the data also showed medical marijuana legalization was associated with a reduction in the rate of one or more days where the patient was in possession of prescription opioids during the first six months after diagnosis.

Medical marijuana legalization was associated with a 5 to 20 percent reduction in opioid dispensing after a new cancer diagnosis. Medical marijuana legalization accompanied by dispensary allowances was associated with a larger reduction in opioid dispensing compared with legalization without dispensaries.

One of the limitations of the study was a lack of data on clinician practices or patient use of medical marijuana. The authors point to recent surveys suggesting that there's a high level of interest in medical marijuana among cancer patients but low level of knowledge and variation in willingness to prescribe among physicians.

The data does not include people who do not use commercial insurance, and the results also do not include older adults and cannot be generalized to that age group.

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