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discrimination Nation Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. Being an ex felon places me on the list of people who are treated unfairly when it comes to finding employment, or housing. As much as I don’t like to admit it, this sort of thing is understandable to me. I’ve said this before, and I stand by it: I would not hire an ex felon, unless I knew them personally, and the same goes for renting a dwelling to one. That sort of discrimination, though inconvenient to me (the person with the felony on his record) is at least understandable. It’s being discriminated against because I smoke marijuana, that is difficult to comprehend. Recreational marijuana is available in Oregon. If you are over 21 years of , you can legally purchase, carry, and “consume” marijuana with no fear of punishment from law enforcement. There is so much of the drug available, in fact, that there is said to be “too much” of it, if you can believe that. Prices currently reflect this abundance; you can get large amounts for nearly nothing, and there are new dispensaries popping up on a regular basis. It’s a booming industry, but my main point, is that the drug is legal. Just like alcohol. Just like cigarettes. Just like caffeine. The problem, of course, is that businesses still want to drug test applicants, and they are still refusing to hire people who smoke marijuana. That’s like saying you won’t hire someone because they go home at night and have a glass of wine with dinner. Think about that for a moment. When a person swallows an ounce of alcohol, it takes roughly one hour for that to process through their system. For the next hour, that person is legally the influence, but after that 60 minutes has elapsed most people should be<b> sober </font></b>and functioning. This means a person can get off of work at 5pm, start drinking at 5:30pm, and legally not be forced to stop until around 2am if they are in public. But really, if a person drinking alcohol wanted to continue drinking at home, they could. As long as they gave themselves enough time to “sober up” this sort of thing is condoned in our society. Alcoholism is rampant. It is a terrible thing that affects millions of people, but getting a job for an alcoholic is not that difficult. You just have to stop drinking for a few hours to pass any tests, and then you can go right back to destroying yourself once you’ve been hired. Smoke a bowl after work, and you are not even worth considering. That is appallingly lopsided, and offensive. For those of you who are clueless about marijuana, I am not going to educate or enlighten you. If you are ignorant, have zero experience with the drug, and only believe what you’ve seen on television and the movies, I hope you’ll just go read someone else. For those of you who have some knowledge; I can take a few hits off a joint tonight, and still be pissing positive three weeks from now. The tests do not detect percentages, they simply give you a positive, or negative indication. That means a person can drink for many hours after work, night after night, and still be employable, but if I want to end my workday by smoking a joint, I am not worthy. To be demonized for doing something harmless, like smoking a bowl, is infuriating. To be told that the legal drug I consume is not “acceptable” is confusing, and to be denied employment because of it borders on criminal. It certainly is discriminatory. Before this, I was getting rejected over the phone, but lately I’ve been driving to interviews, and then getting the bad news. With no current employment, I can’t even the fuel to to these wastes of time, but I am doing it anyways. It’s difficult to tell where this is leading though. What’s really going to happen to me if nobody will give me a chance? Some people might suggest I stop smoking marijuana, and that seems reasonable, but I insist it is completely unfair. Nobody is insisting people who drink alcohol abstain from doing so, in order to get a job. Why should I be treated differently? I’m not going to argue my point much more. I’m tired of doing so. I do not know if there are tests that can identify the percentage of THC in a person’s system. Something as simple as a breathalyzer can indicate a level of intoxication, so don’t tell me it’s not possible to do the same with marijuana, or any of the other drugs out there, legal or otherwise. Until tests start showing the percentages of this particular legal drug, I think telling someone you will not hire them because they smoke marijuana is blatant discrimination. Let me repeat: if you went to an interview and told your perspective employer that you had a glass of wine after dinner every night, and as a result you were not hired, you’d have a case of discrimination. I am experiencing the equivalent, and it is having some very destructive and demeaning affects on my life. |
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