Recreational marijuana has been legalized in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean that you are free to smoke marijuana or take a THC-infused edible whenever you please. Odds are your employer has a pretty cut and dry policy when it comes to drug use on the job, but marijuana stays detectable in your system much longer than a substance like alcohol, so there’s a possibility that you could fail a drug test for marijuana even if you are not under the influence of the drug at the time.
As you can imagine, this can complicate a number of different issues with your employment, but we want to focus on one specific aspect, and that’s how marijuana use and a drug test can influence your ability to collect compensation after an on-the-job injury. Below, we explain how marijuana use and a failed drug test can impact your Minnesota workers’ compensation claim.
Drug Testing After A Work Injury
For the sake of this blog, we’re only going to focus on whether or not your recreational marijuana use can impact your ability to collect compensation in the wake of an injury. We can’t speak with certainty whether or not a failed drug test will lead to the termination of your employment based on a personal conduct policy, but we do want to speak on our area of expertise – how a failed drug test can impact your workers’ compensation claim.
For starters, under Minnesota law it is legal for an employer to request that an employee take a drug test following an on-the-job accident. If your employer requests that you submit to a drug test, it is in your best interest to do so. This is especially true when it comes to workers’ compensation because in Minnesota, failing a drug test after a work injury does not automatically render you ineligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Your employer and their insurance company may assume a failed drug test means that they are off the hook for injury compensation, but that’s simply not the case in Minnesota.
However, this doesn’t mean that you are absolutely guaranteed benefits regardless of your mental and physical state at the time of injury. In fact, it’s these states that will determine whether or not you are eligible for workers’ compensation. The onus falls on the employer and their insurance company to prove that the employee’s altered state of mind directly contributed to their injuries. This threshold is true for substances other than marijuana, like alcohol or prescription painkillers. If those substances were in your system at the time of your work injury, your employer will need to prove that their presence directly contributed to your injuries.
For example, if an explosion at work injured you and two other employees, you will still be entitled to benefits regardless of whether or not you were drunk or high, because that altered state of mind was not the primary reason that you were injured at work. Conversely, if you were high and fell asleep while operating a forklift and suffered injuries in a crash, your employer may have a pretty strong argument that your altered state of mind was the direct cause of your injuries.
Essentially, it could very easily come down to a he said, she said argument about your state of mind and how it did or didn’t contribute to your work injuries that day, and you know the other side is going to have an attorney in their corner, so you should do the same. Don’t leave compensation up to chance and let the insurance company paint a deceitful picture of how your injuries occurred and your state of mind at the time of the accident. A failed drug test is only a small piece of the puzzle, and unless drugs or alcohol were the primary reason for your accident, you are still entitled to injury benefits. Let us get those benefits for you.
For more information about the legalities surrounding recreational marijuana use and collecting workers compensation, or for assistance filing or collecting a compensation claim, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
