Bales and Bales of Weed; bus stops; drug testing.

RantWoman signed petitions multiple years about decriminalizing marijuana.

(Admitting this once long ago kept RantWoman off a jury for a street-level drug buy / bust case. Oh Well.)

RantWoman voted FOR I-502 and is glad it passed.

RantWoman has been listening with alternating waves of interest and bemusement to news accounts of implementing marijuana legalization.

Bemusement for instance because some voices sound as though the tax regimen is supposed to solve all of WA's fiscal problems. RantWoman finds herself wondering whether people who think this may have been consuming too much of the product.

RantWoman hears neighboring states quivering in fear of Washington pot users coming over interstate lines in waves. These news stories evoke memories of a much younger RantWoman's summer of European train travel and the drug sniffing dogs that came aboard every time RantWoman travelled out of Amsterdam northward. RantWoman is glad not to have encountered such intrusions on her few trips across state lines since I 502 has started going into effect.

And RantWoman DID NOT VOTE FOR every single bus stop she visits regularly to REEK of weed.

RantWoman has been thinking of this whole tangle of opinions this week because of the subject of ....pre-employment drug testing!

Please note: RantWoman supposes this post might be more informative if RantWoman included some statistics about how common pre-employment drug testing is. Instead RantWoman presents further musing:

RantWoman knows people who seem to consume bales of weed to no apparent effect.

RantWoman knows people who consume A LOT of weed who could probably stand to consume less.

RantWoman assumes people in both categories above are also smart enough to look up their own darn tips for beating a drug test.

Awhile ago someone RantWoman knows was offered a new job contingent on a pre-employment drug screen.

But the person RantWoman knows who most recently had to take a drug test is adamant about not using anything of the sort. For a whole bunch of reasons, RantWoman has complete confidence the applicant is telling the truth.

Nevertheless, the drug testing process initially spat out something hostial and accusatory.

Do they think everyone in WA is a pothead? Um no because other people RantWoman knows of at the same company have not had this problem.

Do they think everyone who is African American in WA is a big pothead? The person with the bad testing result is in fact African American, but RantWoman has not basis beyond her occasionally overly suspicious inclinations to think the problem is the applicant's race.

And the applicant continued to insist she is 200% completely clean.. So RantWoman and other voices encouraged her to speak up and ask questions. Turns out....the dirty specimen belonged to someone who has a surprisingly similar name and lives in another state far away.

Score one for backbone, and for the applicant RantWoman knows settling into a new job!