Nearly Half of Americans in Recreational States Admit to Working High

According to recent findings from Instamotor, 48 percent of cannabis consumers in states that allow recreational cannabis said they have gone to work high.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents, the largest group in the survey, admitted to working high at least once per week. Seventeen percent said they work high at least once per month, while 28 percent work high several times per year, and 18 percent said not within the last year.

Of those who work high, 50 percent said they believe they would get terminated for working high, despite 73 percent saying they perform better at work while high.

Instamotor, which serves as a motor vehicle exchange, conducted a previous survey in October 2017, and found that a considerable amount of cannabis consumers say they are able to drive high. The findings were shared from “. . . a survey Instamotor conducted which found 39 percent of people feel comfortable driving high,” Liz Glazier, communications manager of Instamotor told CULTURE. “We recently conducted a similar survey and I want you to have the first look at our findings.”

Progressive companies like Denver-based Flowhub allow and even encourage its employees to work high during brainstorming meetings or towards the end of the day.

Pre-employment drug tests, however, are now commonplace. You can thank former President Ronald Reagan for mandatory workplace drug testing. All workplace drug testing practices are based upon The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. It was a reaction to a tragic Amtrak and Conrail collision that killed 16 people in 1987. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed cannabis for the incident, even though the operator, Ricky Gates, was also on PCP. “If the joint hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been so inattentive,” he claimed, strangely disregarding his PCP usage. “I feel it was pretty much exclusively the marijuana—the marijuana and the disease of addiction.”

Cannabis should be the least of your employer’s worries. But in the end, employers have the ultimate say-so and have the legal right to fire anyone for consuming cannabis on or off the clock.