Mike Boyer was the first person to buy legal recreational cannabis in Spokane, Washington. Mr. Boyer was featured in numerous media stories after he purchased four grams of legal cannabis from Spokane Green Leaf on Tuesday, July 8th. After making the purchase, Mike Boyer turned to the crowd at the store, held his purchase in the air, and the crowd cheered as media cameras took photos of his celebration. However, that celebration was short lived.
The next day, after seeing the media coverage of Mike Boyer purchasing legal cannabis, Mr. Boyer’s employer fired him. Apparently TrueBlue Labor Ready, a temp agency, didn’t like the fact that their employee was the face of legal cannabis sales in Spokane. Mike Boyer posted the following message on Craigslist in an attempt to get a new job (per Seattlepi.Com):
“I lost my job due to the news coverage of me being the FIRST PERSON TO BUY MARIJUANA LEGALLY IN SPOKANE! I regret nothing. But now im jobless and have decided to post my resume …”
A media firestorm ensued, putting pressure on the employer to do what was right. It appears that the pressure was too much for TrueBlue Labor Ready, who gave Mike Boyer his job back working in the auto-auction industry, and even paid him for the day he was considered to be a terminated employee with the agency. I’m happy to say that according to media reports, Mike Boyer is again employed 40 hours a week. I hope this serves as a lesson to other employers that wish to discriminate against their employees that choose to consume cannabis.
