Christian Hughes, a manager of a seniors complex near Redding for five years, definitely thought he had job security.
He says he got regular pay raises, "my resident retention was awesome" and the tenants "treated me like I was a grandson."
But the apartment complex was sold. The new owner required drug testing to keep his job. Hughes' test came up positive, and he was fired.
He says he smokes to dull pain of a jaw shattered in a car accident several years ago.
His new employer was unfazed by his physicians recommendation for pot.
As reported in today's Sacramento Bee, California's Proposition 215 medical marijuana law doesn't require employers to make accommodations or waive any workplace rules for legal cannabis users. A state Supreme Court ruling also affirmed that medical pot use can get you fired. Read the report here.
Hughes said his residents never knew he was a pot patient. More than 60 tenants signed a petition in an unsuccessful bid to save him from getting fired.
"I was doing a wonderful job," said Hughes, whose story was first reported in The Record Searchlight in Redding. "The marijuana never affected my job."
Except when it came to keeping it.
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