Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
Sonic gave out MJ? Then a comedy of errors ensued.
When I first saw this story, the humor in such a transaction was obvious. It reminded me of the time my sister handed cash out the window of a Taco Bell. They put their bank deposits in a paper food bag next to all the outgoing orders. What a dopey procedure. My sister didn’t get fired. It was an honest mistake.
But I digress. Back to the pot-in-the-bag.
What I wasn’t expecting was to find that the woman customer is facing eviction because her husband has been hospitalized and unable to work. The journalist covering the funny pot-on-the-side decided to solicit donations IN THE ARTICLE for the family. My dilemma: Comment on the hilarious pot-out-the-window angle or sympathize with the down and out patron?
My dilemma was soon solved. The reader comments cover the humor, the sorrow, and the controversy about legalizing cannabis. But wait, there’s more. Some speculate about whether Sonic is running a drug distribution outlet (a la Breaking Bad’s chicken franchise), or it was just a dimwitted, pot smoking, minimum wage earning employee who got careless.
What a diverse argument a little weed sprouted.
First the story, from The Frederick News Post:
A trip to Sonic intended as a treat ended with a surprise twist for a Frederick woman.
Carla McFarland said she went to Sonic on Guilford Drive on Wednesday with her 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son after a trip to the library and a morning spent packing boxes. After passing chicken strips and fries to her children, McFarland, 35, reached into the bag for her own food and found a small plastic bag containing what appeared to be marijuana in a third container holding her own fries.
“I just kind of sat there in my car in shock,” McFarland said Thursday. “I kept thinking, what if my kids had eaten it?”
McFarland contacted Sonic’s management and called police. McFarland said a manager also called police and told her that an employee took responsibility for the bag, saying that it must have slipped from her apron. The manager told her the employee had been fired.
For McFarland, the trip to Sonic was meant as a treat during a difficult few months for her family. Her husband has been in Georgetown University Hospital after surgery in May, and the family now faces eviction from its condo. The family has fallen behind on rent, with McFarland unable to work with two children.
The nonprofit Patty Pollatos Fund Inc. is stepping in to help the McFarland family with an online fundraiser planned to begin sometime next week, founder Debbie Williams said.
McFarland said she posted about the discovery on Facebook, prompting laughs from some friends. Others urged her to go public. She doesn’t believe the situation is a laughing matter.
“I think that’s why everyone thinks it’s so funny, because it’s marijuana and it’s going to be legalized,” she said. “It could have been crack. It could have been cocaine in that little baggie.”
Now some of the actual comments from readers:
That explains why Sonic’s food is so deliciously addictive.
There’s a huge disconnect between actual environmental hazards and social opprobrium. Marijuana originally was outlawed for economic reasons (the hemp industry was a threat to paper and chemical manufacturers). Racial bigotry and false scare tactics were employed to persuade Congress to pass laws against it.
She was a stay-at-home mom. Was that okay with you or you think there should be no stay-at-home moms.
It could have been plutonium. It could have been Gatorade. What’s the point?
One thing alcoholics rarely do is spill their booze… And one thing people making $8 an hour don’t do is lose their weed in someone’s food bag.
And my favorite:
If [the employee] had a birth control pill in her pocket that slipped out, would you assume that she is having sex on the job?
No, but if you find a ribbed Trojan, yeah probably.
by T.M. Burroughs