O.penVAPE Drug Tests Its Employees
The press release is a couple of weeks old, but I am still stunned by the triumphant declaration by a maker of cannabis vaporizer pens that it proudly drug tests its employees.
O.penVAPE (reviewed as #28 in the HIGH TIMES 2014 Vape Pen Guide) sent out the release of April 17, entitled, “O.penVAPE, the Nation’s Largest Cannabis Brand, Will Test Employees for Dangerous Drug Abuse.” Ignoring for the moment the audacious claim to brand supremacy for a product that placed second in its category at the latest Cannabis Cup, let’s hear from the public spokesperson for O.penVAPE, Todd Mitchem:
“Unlike dangerous drugs, cannabis can be part of a healthy lifestyle that promotes wellness,” Mitchem said. “We always encourage consumers to use cannabis responsibly, and, as such, we have implemented a stringent drug policy for our own employees. O.penVAPE understands that, as the largest brand in the cannabis industry, our view holds weight — and our view is simple: we won’t tolerate dangerous drug use by our employees.”
Dangerous drugs, like, say psilocybin mushrooms or LSD, which, like cannabis, can’t cause fatal overdose? Dangerous drugs like ecstasy, which as former UK drugs advisor Professor David Nutt once noted is safer than horseback riding? Or perhaps ketamine, the horse tranquilizer that still ranks lower than cannabis in overall danger?
Or would it be the most dangerous drugs, alcohol and nicotine, that O.penVAPE will be testing for? Nope, because those drugs aren’t scheduled, and O.penVAPE seeks to “reinforce the important differentiation between cannabis and other scheduled drugs.”
Sadly, some cannabis consumers working for O.penVAPE seem to approve of the policy, happy to drop trou and submit to the drug war discrimination tactic of peeing in a cup to demonstrate fitness for employment… just so long as it isn’t their drug being discriminated against. Testing positive for cannabis won’t get you fired / not hired by O.penVAPE, but testing positive for anything else will.
O.penVAPE, it’s not the danger of the drugs you are testing for that matters. It’s the disgusting breach of personal privacy. It’s the warrantless accusation that we’re guilty of being drug criminals until proven innocent by the seizure of our fluids. It’s the Big Brother attitude that people who won’t submit to revealing their off-hours habits to an employer have no right to work. It’s the inevitable false positives that will subject innocent people to stress and scorn. It’s the fact you’ll end up with some employees wandering around work with fake dongs and clean urine under their clothes to beat your drug test.
Some cannabis consumers and, now, some cannabis businesses just don’t get it. This fight for marijuana legalization isn’t really about marijuana; it’s about freedom. It’s about being free citizens with sovereign jurisdiction over our own minds and bodies. It’s about not having to surrender our rights and dignity and freedom over our personal private choices that harm no others. This is a war for liberty; marijuana is just one of the battlefields. We didn’t fight to legalize marijuana just so a vape pen company could demonize other drugs to make a public relations score. Until O.penVAPE reverses its traitorous policy of drug testing employees, I call on all cannabis consumers to boycott their products.
UPDATE: Here is some of Todd Mitchem’s replies to members of the drug reform community calling O.penVAPE out for drug testing (with my pithy responses interspersed…):
Tom Angell @tomangell
@ToddMitchem can we talk about reversing discriminatory @OpenVAPE drug testing policy ASAP in lieu of public campaign/petition against it?
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@tomangell @OpenVAPE We are keeping people safe. So sorry you don’t care about employee safety. Growns up need to behave differently.
Oh… so people who oppose drug testing are children who don’t care about safety. Keep digging, Tom…
Mambo Sauce @MamboSauceDMV
@ToddMitchem @tomangell sorry. drug testing flies in face of everything the mj movement is about. will never c me buy one of your products.
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@MamboSauceDMV @tomangell I guess I missed the memo where the MJ community was fighting for employers embracing the abuse of dangerous drugs
Oh… so employers who respect the privacy of their employees and don’t assume they’re drug criminals until disproven by piss are “embracing the abuse of dangerous drugs”.
Benjamin @Sorenzeo
@ToddMitchem @tomangell If employers can’t decide whether or not an applicant is a meth addict via interviews, they are incompetent.
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@micahdaigle @tomangell The point here is that we must teach the public cannabis doesn’t belong in the same category as dangerous drugs
…by using the same tactic the Drug Warriors used to convince the public pot smokers don’t belong in the same workplace as drinkers and smokers!
Benjamin @Sorenzeo
@ToddMitchem @micahdaigle @tomangell actually, the point here is that you’re still supporting forcing people to pee in a cup. Degrading.
Micah Daigle @micahdaigle
@ToddMitchem @tomangell PR strategy gone wrong. You will face backlash from us activists who have worked to make your industry legal.
Tom Angell @tomangell
.@micahdaigle Yup, @ToddMitchem missed memo not to mess w activists who are so good we passed laws that led to his industry’s very creation.
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@micahdaigle @tomangell The strategy was careful to support mainstream cannabis use but protect the industry from dangerous accidents.
Right… as in the part of your press release that notes: “O.penVAPE has not encountered incidences of dangerous drug abuse within its ranks.” If the best you’ve got to protect the industry from reckless employees is a cup of pee, your hiring practices and management techniques suck.
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@tomangell @micahdaigle Tom, it’s unfortunate that you did not call me directly. We could have had a real grown up discussion.
Once again with the condescension…
Tom Angell @tomangell
@ToddMitchem @micahdaigle It’s unfortunate u enacted discriminatory drug policy & used prohibitionist logic to defend. You can fix any time.
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@tomangell @micahdaigle and still you have not reached out to talk…..
And why would any activist at this point feel like reaching out to talk with you, after being called “children” who “don’t care about employee safety” and “embrace the use of dangerous drugs”?
Todd Mitchem @ToddMitchem
@tomangell @micahdaigle We’re also against the war on drugs it’s a failure. But we want to keep our team safe. We are aligned with you.
…against the War on Drugs, but more than willing to use one of its most reviled tactics if it helps our bottom line.
Todd’s playing a cost-benefit analysis here. He’s got to know instituting a drug testing policy is going to piss off the very activists that helped pass the legalization that makes his business possible. So he’s got to imagine the benefit he gets from the mainstream for instituting a drug testing policy will reap more dividends than the “stoners” he’ll lose from it. He must feel as the groundswell for legalization is past the tipping point, so he won’t really need much from the legalizers anymore, so position the brand toward the great emerging market of new, health-conscious legal tokers who already have disdain for the “stoner” culture as it is. And people who use other drugs are such a mnority that he can trample all over them without any fear of backlash.
Well… we’ll see. I think their booth at the next cannabis event might attract some unwanted attention.
