The Mirror

Washington Post Reporters May Soon Be Able To Get High

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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Washington Post reporters learned at a meeting Wednesday that one day they may be able to smoke weed without fearing that their employer will test them for pot. Reporters there currently undergo drug testing.

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Fortune first reported the news of Post townhall and an editor’s tweet about it.

A question about the policy arose during the meeting.

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Politico‘s Jack Shafer cracked, “At City Paper you had to test positive or we wouldn’t hire you.”

Madden, who was previously editor of Washington City Paper, had other, less exciting, office news involving coffee.

“Additional news from Post townhall: Bad free coffee for all employees would have cost $60,000 a year; good free coffee, $180,000,” he announced on Twitter. “We get neither free coffee nor free weed from the Post, and it sounds like it’ll stay that way on both fronts.”

Tom Angell, who writes for marijuana.com, suggested that showing your boss your urine is strange. “Frankly, it’s bizarre that any publisher would want to look at your urine before letting you submit copy,” he wrote.

Madden felt similarly about sharing his urine.

“Completely agree,” he replied. “It was the first time I’d ever been drug-tested for a job.”

In 2014, Gawker named nine companies that drug test their employees. At the time, they included CBS (corporate), Disney (corporate), Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Tribune Company.

According to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department website, people in Washington who are 21 and older can legally possess two ounces of weed. You can gift the substance but you cannot sell it. You can grow six pot plants in your home (but only three can be mature. You can have rolling papers and bongs. You can smoke on private property, but not in public.

Madden’s conclusion: “We get neither free coffee nor free weed from the Post, and it sounds like it’ll stay that way on both fronts.”

Just for the hell of it, The Mirror asked WaPo race reporter and Washington Guild member Wesley Lowery what he thinks about WaPo‘s pot policy. He did not immediately reply.