Did THC in Blood Send House Framer’s Injury Claim up in Smoke?

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The use of an illegal drug can easily put an end to a worker’s compensation claim if there is evidence that the drug played a role in the injury. In Mississippi, if there is THC in an employee’s blood at the time of the accident, that employee has a difficult burden if he hopes to recover benefits; he’ll have to prove that the drug did not contribute to the accident.

In one case, a house framer was nailing wood when he fell through a gap in the roof. The gap was two feet by four feet–the kind of hole that, according to a supervisor, would be hard to fall through because one could put one's arms out and catch oneself on the rafters before falling all the way through. Still, the supervisor said, the framer didn’t appear under the influence when he found him lying on the ground and called an ambulance.

At the hospital that same afternoon, a blood test found THC in the employee's system. According to the framer, that had nothing to do with his fall. After all, he hadn’t smoked it for at least two weeks. He explained that he was taking it for PTSD related to his time in the military and because he was stressed out about a child support hearing that was scheduled to occur after the accident.  

The supervisor also said he was out during lunch and didn’t see the framer during that time, which was just before the fall happened. But the framer denied smoking marijuana during lunch.

The company denied the claim on the basis that THC, illegal in Mississippi, contributed to the injury.

Mississippi law provides that a worker is not entitled to compensation if the use of illegal drugs caused the accident. Further, if the employee tests positive for the presence, at the time of injury, of any drug illegally used, it will be presumed that the drug caused the injury. When that’s the case, the injury is not compensable, unless the employee proves that the drug played no role in the injury.

Were the framer’s injuries compensable?

A. No. The framer’s arguments that he wasn’t affected by THC at the time of the fall were just speculation; he provided no hard evidence.

B. Yes. No one saw him smoking marijuana.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Ladner v. Hinton Homes, LLC, No. No. 2024-WC-00941-COA (Miss. Ct. App. 05/06/25), which held that the employee failed to prove that marijuana did not contribute to the injury.

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The court pointed out that the employee tested positive for THC, which is illegal in Mississippi, on the same day of the accident. While he claimed he hadn’t smoked marijuana for weeks, he also said that the child support hearing was making him stressed and was one of the reasons he smoked it. That hearing was still pending at the time of the accident, suggesting that he could have been continuing to smoke it for that same reason. Further, the supervisor didn’t observe him during lunch, leaving open the possibility that the framer smoked during that time, prior to going back on the roof and falling. 

Further, the size of the hole through which he fell suggested that he may have been affected by THC to the point that he could not stop himself from falling through it.

While the supervisor didn’t think the framer looked to be under the influence, the supervisor was involved in an emergency situation, and so could hardly have been expected to make clear observations on that issue.

Finally, the framer’s statements that the THC in his system did not cause the fall were merely speculative. He provided no specific evidence to overcome the presumption that the drug caused the injury.

The court upheld the denial of the claim.

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