In 2013, The Denver Post named Ricardo Baca its first editor for marijuana coverage, making him the staff expert on pot. That meant sometimes counseling new hires on how to pass the newspaper’s pre-employment drug test.
“It was super awkward,” Baca recalls. “I’d have an editor come to me, and they’d kinda quietly say, ‘Hey, I’ve this new hire, she’s really great, but she lives in Seattle and she consumes regularly, and she’s not going to pass this drug test, and so can you help us out?’”
Baca would ask prospective employees when they last used, and he’d tell them marijuana stays in the body for a month or longer. He had gotten up to speed on the issues after editing a big story on this very subject. He’d send them a link, he says, “and just hope for the best.”
To read the complete story, visit Colorado Public Radio’s website.
