One DoorDash customer received more than he bargained for when he placed an order of food—finding an unwanted bag of weed in his order, and decided to complain about it. The actions of the driver led to his termination as a Dasher with the company.
A Columbus, Ohio man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he ordered food through DoorDash on August 9 and complained that the bag of weed made him feel “scared.”
“I was scared at first but then again, I wasn’t very surprised,” the man who ordered food from DoorDash told ABC 6.
He provided a photo of his bag of food where he found a fork and a bag filled with cannabis. The photo shows a baggie adorned with alien heads holding what appears to be about a gram of weed. “Did this start with the driver?” he said. “Or did this start in the restaurant that I ordered this from?”
“It’s scary, because I’m a healthcare worker, and I see how this affects people every day,” the customer said. “I even have a close friend whose nephew actually passed away due to smoking some marijuana that was laced by fentanyl.” (Both WebMD and Snopes have dismissed claims of fentanyl-laced pot, and Dr. Peter Grinspoon told High Times that fentanyl most likely disintegrates with the heat of a flame.)
“What happened is not acceptable, and we have removed the Dasher from our platform,” a DoorDash representative told ABC6 and FOX28 in a statement. We appreciate the customer for reporting the incident.”
“I think about the kids,” he said. “I have a nephew. I think about my coworker. He has granddaughters and grandsons.”
DoorDash quickly responded and told the customer that the Dasher had been terminated. “We do not condone this type of action and have therefore taken the step in removing them from our platform,” the customer email from DoorDash reads. “This Dasher will no longer be able to deliver future orders on DoorDash.”
Dashers, or DoorDash delivery drivers, must submit both a DMV and criminal background check before becoming a driver according to the company’s background check policy.
DoorDash and Cannabis
Four years ago, at Fortune’s 2018 Brainstorm Tech conference, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said that while the company toyed with the idea of cannabis delivery, there were no immediate plans of doing that, at least not in the United States.
“That’s our general counsel’s favorite question,” Xu said. “That’s not what we’re doing today nor what we plan on doing. There are a lot of complications around payment when it comes to something that has that level of regulation.”
Since then, however, the company explored the cannabis industry in Canada, where it’s legal at the federal level. Deliveries, however, are not yet part of the equation.
Forbes reported last April that Canadian cannabis retail outlet Superette led a partnership with DoorDash Inc., offering pick-up out of its Toronto, Canada, locations. The partnership is with DoorDash Technologies Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of DoorDash Inc. The rumor that DoorDash was getting involved in cannabis was first exposed on Twitter, Benzinga reported last April.
The partnership features curated menus and special collections to reflect the local area. Superette goods, however, are available for pick-up only and not yet offered for delivery.
Uber Eats also announced a partnership with a Canadian cannabis retailer, in this case, Tokyo Smoke.
Uber Technologies Inc. added Canadian cannabis retailer Tokyo Smoke to its marketplace on November 29, 2021—allowing customers to browse, then place orders from the Uber Eats app and finally pick it up at their nearest Tokyo Smoke store, with dozens of locations in the province. You can browse through an assortment of cannabis products.
