A study released earlier this month showed a 6.7 percent decline in workers’ compensation claim activity where states have approved medical marijuana.

The report was authored by Medical Marijuana and Workers’ Compensation Claiming, and was led by researchers with the Business and Economics Department, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College in Blue Ash, OH, and the Department of Economics at Temple University in Philadelphia. They studied data from the Annual Social Economic supplement to the U.S. Census’ Current Population Survey between 1989 and 2012, to study the relationship between workers comp and medical marijuana.

Published in Health Economics in February, the study found that, after the passage of medical marijuana laws, states saw a “modest” decrease in in claims of 6.7 percent. The dollar amount of claims decreased by 0.8 percent.

“We think there is a lot of overlap between conditions for which medical marijuana can be used in managing symptoms and the types of illnesses that lead people to file workers’ compensation claims,” said study coauthor, Catherine Maclean, an associate professor in the economics department at Temple University in Philadelphia.

She said that medical marijuana could be used to mitigate symptoms of chronic pain, for example.

The findings suggest that medical marijuana can allow workers to better manage symptoms associated with workplace injuries and illnesses and, in turn, reduce need for (workers compensation).

Read more here and here.

Check out the full study here.