Dialogue: What Readers Had to Say About the Beaverton Bus Driver Who Lost His Job After Taking CBD Tincture

“Should have Googled it.”

“I feel like I’m the fall guy here,” says Jeff Anderson, who used a hemp tincture and lost his job. “All I wanted to do is be pain-free.”(Daniel Stindt)
By WW Staff

Last week, WW wrote about Jeff Anderson, a Beaverton School District bus driver who was forced into early retirement after taking CBD tincture and failing a drug test. Anderson blames the cannabis store clerk for telling him he could use the tincture to treat pain from psoriatic arthritis and still pass a urinalysis. Here's what readers had to say.

Michael Richards, via Facebook: "Should have Googled it."

Branwen-Saoirse NiCheallaigh, via Facebook: "The employee should not have assured him of anything, but he also should not have been so easily assured. Taking a pot-based product when you really, really, really can't afford to test positive for pot is risky business. Anyone with half a wit could figure that much."

Seems2Me, via wweek.com: "His story highlights a problem I've seen half a dozen times this year: people with legitimate health problems 'consulting' with dispensary sales staff. This is essentially practicing medicine without a license."

Michelle Fischer, via Facebook: "I feel terrible for this man. I now never trust a budtender to give me information about marijuana."

Denise B. Ackerman, via Facebook: "He wasn't driving a school bus high on cannabis, he was simply controlling his pain. He actually was saving the district money by not getting pharmaceutical drugs and increasing his district-provided health care insurance."

Robert Pyles, via Facebook: "If Oregon wants the revenue, they need to make employers be more lenient or just stop testing for pot all together."

Bob Sterry, via Twitter: "Of course, had he become addicted to OxyContin he'd still be on the job."

Sean Fleckenstein, via Facebook: "Well, I guess he should've drank himself into an alcoholic stupor or fouled his lungs with cigarettes. Drug tests for cannabis are hypocritical and should be illegal. Where's all this freedom we keep getting lectured about?"

Container of Multitudes, via wweek.com: "We can't have people high on the job, doesn't matter if it's weed or meth or alcohol, so there will always need to be some sort of testing. But people like this should have some sort of recourse."

Capt'n, via wweek.com: "Don't ask the lady at the liquor store for advice about your liver, the guy at the 7-Eleven about lung cancer and the kid at the candy store about diabetes. These people are not pharmacists or doctors."

Correction

Willamette Week's Beer Guide magazine misstated the amount of beer produced by Fort George Brewery last year. The correct figure is 20,000 barrels. WW regrets the error.

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