Impact of Marijuana, Vaping, and Tobacco on Life Insurance in Canada

Life insurance companies will ask you about your smoking habits when assessing your health for a life insurance application. Insurers will commonly look at your usage of tobacco, marijuana and vaping products as they will all impact your premium on your life insurance.

In this article:

• Can I get life insurance if I smoke cigarettes, vape or smoke/consume cannabis?
• What classifies you as a smoker?
• How does vaping and e-cigarettes affect life insurance?
• How does marijuana affect life insurance In Canada?
  • How many joints can you consume per week and still be considered a standard non-smoker?
• What Life Insurance Companies Are Insuring Marijuana Smokers?
• Will I get tested for drug use when applying for life insurance?
• How long after quitting smoking will I see a decrease in my insurance rates?
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the impact of marijuana, vaping and tobacco on life insurance
  

Can I get life insurance if I smoke cigarettes, vape or smoke cannabis?

Yes, even if you are a cigarette smoker, if your vape, or smoke cannabis/marjiuana then you can definitely get life insurance. You likely have a good chance in getting an underwritten life insurance policy, or if you are having trouble with that, you are very likely to get a great simplified life insurance policy.

What classifies you as a smoker?

Smoking has its long term side effects that accumulate the longer you smoke for. As a result, some companies will charge from 30% to 300% more for those rated as smokers, depending on how much they smoke, and how long they’ve been smoking for.

Insurance companies will classify you as a smoker if you’ve used any of these products within the past 12 months:

• All tobacco products, including pipes and cigarillos, except for the occasional cigar*
• Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes)
• Other vaping devices or nicotine-based products (such as nicotine patch, gum, or smoking cessation products)

*An occasional cigar is often defined as one large cigar per week with negative cotinine results on urine tests. This means that you can qualify as a non-smoker with 1 cigar per week.

This means that to be considered as a non-smoker, you need to have quit smoking for a year.
More specifically, insurance companies will often define a non-smoker as someone who has not used any tobacco or nicotine products in the past 12 months, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, water pipes, betel nut, smoking cessation products or nicotine or tobacco in any other form or more than 12 large cigars.

Some companies will classify you further into different non-smoker categories depending on how long you have gone without smoking. For example, Manulife will classify you as Healthstyle 1, healthstyle 2, or a non-standard smoker if you haven’t smoked in the past 10 years, 2 years, or 12 months respectively. Classifications like these help reduce your premiums: the longer you’ve gone without smoking, the cheaper your premiums can be. That being said, even if you’ve just quit now, your premiums will lower as time goes on.

How does vaping and e-cigarettes affect life insurance?

Insurance companies will treat vaping and e-cigarettes users as smokers. This is because while vaping and e-cigarettes are still relatively new and their effects being lesser known, vaping and e-cigarettes are not free of potential health risks.

Although the contents of e-cigarettes can differ from brand to brand, they can contain some or all of the same toxins as traditional cigarettes, making it just as dangerous for your health as smoking regular cigarettes. Some vapes contain nicotine, and Health Canada warns that vaping with nicotine can lead to nicotine addiction. The impact of inhaling the substances in vaping products are currently unknown and are continuing to be assessed, but the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada also warns that vaping is linked to respiratory issues and increased blood pressure. Due to all these health risks, vaping and e-cigarette users are considered as smokers to insurers.

How does marijuana affect life insurance in Canada?

With the legalization of cannabis in 2018, insurance companies have changed how they view cannabis users in their policies. In the past, recreational marijuana smokers would be treated the same as smokers which would result in higher premiums. Cannabis users are now considered non-smokers by most insurers with some limits to how much they can smoke each week. Cannabis users that exceed the weekly limit set by the insurance company could fall under the smoker category.

How many joints can you consume per week and still be considered a standard non-smoker?

The typical weekly limit set by insurance companies is 2 or 3 joints per week. If you consume marijuana (ie. edibles), the limit is the same as smoking. This means that if you’re an occasional marijuana user that usually smokes 3 times per week, you can qualify for standard traditional life insurance or simplified life insurance with non-smoker ratings.

If you exceed the marijuana limit set by a specific life insurance company, you won’t be able to get standard non-smoker ratings, meaning your life insurance will be more costly. If you are a daily marijuana smoker you might have a harder time getting approved for traditionally underwritten life insurance. In such cases, No medical life insurance is an option for easier approval, although at a higher premium than a traditional fully underwritten policy for non-smokers.

What Life Insurance Companies Are Insuring Marijuana Smokers?

Luckily, in Canada there are multiple life insurance companies that are willing to insure marijuana smokers.  Most life insurance companies in Canada will be able to provide you with life insurance whether it be a fully underwritten policy, simplified policy or no-medical policy. The only thing that you must consider when it comes down to finding the right life insurance provider for you, is how much cannabis consumption will they allow until they label you as a smoker instead of a non-smoker. This is something that varies company to company, luckily if you are interested in finding this out, we can help you to take a look at the various different options that you have in Canada.

How long after quitting smoking will I see a decrease in my insurance rates?

Are you a smoker thinking about quitting but concerned about the effect on your life insurance rates? Understanding how long it takes to qualify for cheaper life insurance rates after stopping smoking will give you the drive you need to quit smoking for good. 

Quitting smoking is a big step toward bettering your health and lowering the risks of tobacco use. Many insurance companies, however, have particular standards for how long a person must remain smoke-free before being labeled a non-smoker. As a result, they require a specific amount of time to elapse after quitting before lowering your life insurance rates. 

The conventional time is usually one year, however other insurers may require a longer duration, such as two or three years, without smoking. During this period, insurers may request medical records or provide tests to confirm smoking cessation. They want to make certain that people have actually quit smoking and are no longer at danger of acquiring smoking-related ailments. You will be eligible for cheaper life insurance rates once you’ve successfully quit smoking and met the smoke-free criterion. 

Will I get tested for drug use when applying for life insurance?

Life insurance companies frequently demand that you submit to a urine and/or blood test if you are applying for a standard underwritten life insurance policy. That enables them to assess whether you told them the truth about your marijuana usage. However, if you are not comfortable with doing a urine/blood test, you can go with the simplified or no-medical route and there won’t be a medical exam required of you, and there will be fewer questions.

There are categories of these policies, a No Medical/Guaranteed Issue life insurance policy and Simplified Issue life insurance policy will not require a medical exams and a limited number of health-related questions (have no medical tests and a no health questions) However, they don’t provide the same level of protection as traditional life insurance. The face amounts of No Medical, Simplified Issue policies are higher than in the past, and they frequently have a cap of $200,000 to $500,000 in coverage. Guaranteed Issue, No Medical policies typically have Face Amounts in the $25,000 to $50,000 range.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the impact of marijuana, vaping and tobacco on life insurance

Finding The Right Life Insurance For Your Habits

Working with a life insurance advisor can help you determine which life insurance company’s recreational use limits align with your habits. At Protect Your Wealth, we work with and compare quotes and policies from the best life insurance companies in Canada to help find the perfect solution for your needs..

Contact Protect Your Wealth or call us at 1-877-654-6119 to talk to our life insurance advisor today. We’re proudly based out of Hamilton, and work with clients anywhere in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, including areas such as Kitchener-Waterloo, Calgary, and Victoria.