Make no mistake about it. Medical marijuana is no longer a trend. It is part of the mainstream. It is now legal in 33 states, both red and blue. Dispensaries are thriving throughout the nation, including in Pennsylvania, where medical cannabis has been legal since 2016. Its proponents champion it as a weapon in the fight against the opioid crisis, touting it as an effective pain relief option to highly addictive narcotic drugs like OxyContin.Moreover, it is gaining acceptance as a treatment method for conditions frequently seen in workers’ compensation cases, such as neuropathy, post traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. It is also increasingly being found to be reasonable and necessary medical treatment for workers’ compensation claimants in multiple jurisdictions around the country.

Yet here in Pennsylvania, employers and workers’ compensation carriers remain in legal limbo, waiting on judicial guidance from the state’s highest courts in the face of ever increasing claims from injured workers to pay for medical marijuana. Will it be considered reasonable and necessary medical treatment under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act? Right now, it might seem that the best way to answer that question would be to shake a Magic 8 Ball. But the outcome can be better predicted by reading the tea leaves and analyzing how the issue of “marijuana as reasonable medical care” has been decided by courts in other states where it is legal.