When Mike Boyer showed up early Tuesday morning outside Spokane Green Leaf, his primary focus was on becoming the first man in the city to make a legal weed purchase, not his three part-time jobs as a security guard. However, after laying claims to the prestigious title of the first legal stoner in Spokane, Boyer quickly realized that all of the publicity surrounding his historical feat might create some unwanted tensions at work.
By Wednesday evening, Boyer claims he was left standing in the unemployment line after two of his employers asked him to report for a drug test. Of course, after enjoying the fruits, or in this case, the flowers of his laborious efforts — standing in line for 19 hours to become the first man in Spokane to purchase legal weed — a drug test was not likely going to work out in his favor.
“I was really unaware that this might be a big deal,” Boyer told the Spokesman-Review, adding that he was sure to lose his other part-time gig, as well.
Unfortunately, while marijuana is now legal in the state of Washington, employers still have the right to terminate an employee based on a drug screen testing positive for cannabis. This is how Boyer’s employers are turning the screws. Although it would be considered borderline unconstitutional for an employer to terminate an employee based on seeing them on television doing something within the scope of the law, like buying a fat sack of weed in Washington, they can still finagle the system by exercising their power to pop a random drug screen on that person for any reason.
Kym Ramey, the human resources manager at Kodiak Security, one of the companies Boyer says terminated him, says it is their company’s policy to drug test all employees for drug use. “We’re a security firm,” said Ramey. “Our employees can’t be under the influence on the job.”
However, Boyer says he has no regrets about trading gainful employment for bragging rights to the title of Spokane’s first lawful pothead. “I’m still the captain! I’m still number one!” Boyer told Vocativ. “I mean, a man can always get a job. But a man can only be the first person to buy recreational cannabis in Spokane once.”
Boyer recently posted his resume to Craigslist, which he hopes will assist him in finding a new job in the marijuana industry.
