Jasmin's Story

My name is Jasmin Reggler. I’ve been living in Rochester since 2007. I was supposed to be a legislative aide for one of the city council members. We met when our children were about two years old, and we’ve just always stayed in touch, and when she got elected to be City Council, she asked if I would be her legislative aide.

I worked with her for one whole month. And then New Year’s Eve, I got my drug test back and I had tested positive for THC. At that moment, the city was like, you’re done. That’s the end of it. For a moment, it makes you feel helpless. It makes you feel like you’re not good enough. And they’re not factoring in your work ethic. They’re not factoring in references. It’s just, it’s a big blow to you, because it’s only based on one thing, and one thing that you’re not even doing at that moment. It can stay in your system for up to 30 days.

Luckily for me, I still had my career. But I was thinking about all the other people that come after me, who really need to get their foot in the door, and who could be turned away just because of this one test. So New Year’s Eve, I started at 11:45 writing a letter to the mayor. My daughter wakes up. And she’s like, what are you doing? And I’m like, I’m writing a letter to the mayor. She’s like, you know her? And I’m like, Well, no, I don’t know her. But we are going to get to know each other. And I explained to her what was going on. I told her that there was this test that I took, and that they found something in the test. And they told me that I couldn’t work. So I’m writing a letter to the mayor to try to get this policy changed. And she even, she came with me to City Council when I went and spoke.

And the end of April, the city introduced legislation to end their testing for THC. And in May it passed, and the city is no longer going to test any potential employees for THC. Testing for THC is problematic. It naturally excludes people whether they’re talented or not. In a way, it keeps people trapped where they are, because it’s more of the higher level jobs that are testing for THC. And we know it’s leaving out a large group of people who won’t even apply for a city job, because they know they are going to be tested.