Ketamine, medical marijuana appropriate injured worker treatments: Court

A Pennsylvania appellate court ruled Thursday that a workers compensation judge erred in determining that reimbursing an injured worker for medical marijuana would subject an employer to federal prosecution.

The Commonwealth Court reversed a Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board decision that upheld a judge’s determination that the employee, who was injured when a work van door closed on her hand, could not be reimbursed for her use of state-approved cannabis.

The employer, Aussie Pet Mobile Bux-Mont, had accepted liability for the hand contusion. The workers comp judge later reduced benefits to partial disability and ordered the company to pay for the claimant’s ketamine treatment.

But the judge simultaneously ruled that the employer wasn’t obligated to pay for the woman’s medical marijuana.

The appellate court said the workers comp board and the comp judge wrongly ruled that reimbursing for medical marijuana would violate federal law.   

Pennsylvania courts have previously ruled that ordering employers to pay for injured workers’ medical marijuana doesn’t run afoul of federal drug laws because the act wouldn’t require employers to “manufacture, distribute, or dispense … a controlled substance.”

“Since the employer is not prescribing marijuana, but rather reimbursing the claimant for his lawful use thereof, the employer is not in violation of the Federal Drug Act,” the court wrote, citing Fegley v. Firestone Tire & Rubber.

The Commonwealth Court remanded the case to the workers comp board for further proceedings.