Ask a Stoner: Dealing With Weed Charges on a Job Application

Dear Stoner: I have a possession charge from when I was nineteen (I got caught with a quarter-pound), and my friend was arrested with a fake ID when he was twenty. We’re both about to graduate from college. Who looks worse on job applications?
Blake

Dear Blake: This all comes down to where the charges occurred and where you’re applying. If you’re in Colorado or another state that has legalized recreational cannabis, then you might be lucky enough to apply for a job where the employer doesn’t care about a weed charge, and you could even get that conviction sealed after applying through the court.

At the end of the day, though, a quarter-pound possession beef still carries a Class 2 misdemeanor charge in Colorado – worse than the Class 3 misdemeanor that a fake ID incurs, and a little harder to clear than possession of an ounce. Anyone with a q-p at nineteen is probably viewed as a dealer, too, so I’d refrain from sharing that amount in the future. Trust a lawyer more than a stoner, but I wouldn’t expect either of you to get a call back from Goldman Sachs for a couple more years, so choose application destinations wisely.

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