CDC Study Suggests Construction Workers, Creatives

CDC Study Suggests Construction Workers, Creatives and Food Prep Personnel Highly Likely to Use Marijuana

A recently conducted analysis has determined that workers in the hospitality and food service industries are some of the most common consumers of marijuana. Workers in extraction and construction, as well as individuals in media, sports, entertainment, arts and design occupations also reported relatively high rates of past-month marijuana use.

The analysis was conducted by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is based on data from the agency’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. This survey, which primarily focuses on behaviors and health conditions, started collecting data from respondents about their occupation status and employment in 2013.

For their analysis, the investigators excluded responses from individuals who had been employed for less than a year, were self-employed, or worked for wages.

In total, they included data from 128,615 individuals from the states of Tennessee, Alaska, South Carolina, Colorado, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Florida, North Dakota, Idaho, New Hampshire, Illinois, Montana, Minnesota, Georgia, and Maryland.

The results showed that those least likely to use cannabis were workers in education and libraries, healthcare providers, and law enforcement. By industry, groups with the lowest rates of marijuana use were utilities, public administration and management of enterprises and companies.

The investigators also observed a broad variation in marijuana use across occupations and industries, ranging from 29.7% among travel and tour guides, to 0.5% among workers in law enforcement. This is in addition to finding that the overall weighted prevalence of past-month marijuana use in the states included was approximately 10.7% for employees aged 18 and above.

Furthermore, they observed above-average prevalence of the drug’s use in a number of occupation and industry groups which historically have high rates of fatalities and injuries, like logging, hunting, and fishing.

In their report, they called attention to the fact that their results were almost equal to estimates from a separate survey, which found a 13.0% past-month use rate among those aged 12 and above. The investigators added that restricting their analysis to employed adults may have contributed to their lower estimates.

Additionally, only two of the total states included in the sample had legalized recreational marijuana during the 2016 to 2020 study period.

With regard to public policy, the investigators highlight that their findings may help decrease the adverse impact of marijuana consumption and possibly have implications for drug policies in the workplace. They note that their results could be used to frame future research and policy discussions.

The peer-reviewed results were published in the American Journal of Public Health.

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