Do life insurance companies test for THC?

When you apply for a life insurance policy, your application goes through the underwriting process. During that time, the company takes a look at your health information, family medical history, lifestyle, occupation, and other information to assess risk. Now some insurance companies require a medical exam, while others don’t, such as Wyshbox. In our case it’s because we use a 100% digital underwriting process that doesn’t require an exam.

Medical exams aren’t something scary. They record your height, weight and blood pressure, and you may have to provide a blood and urine sample as well. But what level of THC do life insurance companies test for? According to our underwriting expert, insurance companies typically have the capability to test on a “for cause” basis. If the underwriter suspects the applicant is lying about their drug use, they can request a drug test. This test is a full drug screen for opiates and other recreational drugs. But again, that’s if you’re suspected of lying during the application or underwriting process.

So what do life insurance companies look for?

Do they drug test for weed? Not really, no. When it comes to marijuana, insurance companies look at a couple of things—namely how often you smoke, whether or not it's medicinal or recreational and how you ingest the marijuana. The first two can help point toward any underlying medical conditions the insurer would want to know about. Medical marijuana is mostly used for pain management for a number of chronic conditions, such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and cancer, among numerous others. What condition you use the marijuana for will probably have a bigger impact on your monthly costs, class rating, or even application status than the marijuana use itself.

But even if you smoke for medical or recreational purposes, you’re still likely to be given a smoker class rating. Smokers include cigarettes, marijuana smokers, vapers, hookah users, cigar chompers, etc. If you inhale smoke, that would go under the smoker class rating. Why does this class rating matter? Well, when it comes to life insurance rates smoker vs. nonsmoker, the victory is gonna go to nonsmokers every time. Smokers can pay as much as 2x-4x more than nonsmokers.

What about edibles?

Why? Are you offering? Uh, I mean…look, if you take edibles to address a medical concern, the company will be more interested in that. It’s likely that ingesting marijuana in the form of edibles will net you nonsmoker rates (since you aren’t, y’know, smoking it). But it depends on who you’re applying with and how they view marijuana in general. Some companies may not make a distinction between smoking and edibles, which means you might be classified as a smoker even if you use edibles.

Will life insurance companies alert the police?

Many people may avoid applying for life insurance simply because they smoke that dank kush regularly and are afraid insurers will narc on them. It’s a reasonable thought. But here’s the thing—it’s not true. Insurance companies hold all application responses confidential in accordance with all applicable laws. And when you apply, the company will disclose up front how your application info will be used and shared, if at all.

Be honest!

This is really some of the best advice we can offer. The best thing you can do on a life insurance application is be honest. About everything! If you smoke weed here and there, say that. If you smoke that dank kush each and every day, then say that. If you eat one brownie a month, share—I mean, be honest about it. You won’t be yelled at. Being honest is about protecting you, because if the insurance company finds out you lied, it may affect your monthly costs, application status, or even your payout, should the worst happen.