“The Department will continue to administer marijuana screenings to personnel when there is indications of impairment and is reviewing its current policies in light of this directive,” the memo continued.
The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act passed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021 led to the change in policy. The Act legalized adult-use marijuana in the state of New York.
“The City is reviewing existing marijuana testing practices in light of changes to New York State law,” according to a Law Department spokesperson, the Staten Island Advance reported.
“With respect to the NYPD, that process is currently ongoing, but nothing has changed at this point. Communications between the Law Department and City agencies are confidential and therefore we will not be commenting further,” the spokesperson said.
Prior to Wednesday’s memo, NYPD, FDNY, and MTA personnel were not able to use marijuana since their jobs are regulated by the federal government, and the drug remains illegal under federal statute.
“The rationale behind this determination is that there is no test for marijuana that conclusively determines current intoxication, making it impossible to determine by drug test alone whether an employee has tested positive for marijuana because of improper use on the job or use during statutorily protected off-use hours,” the memo continues.
Nevertheless, if there is suspicion that a police office is impaired by marijuana while on duty, the officer can be tested.
This will likely make punishment problematic if abuse is suspected since THC levels are maintained in the body for a long time following use, as suggested in the memo.
According to the National Library of Medicine, “The half- life of THC for an infrequent user is 1.3 days and for frequent users 5-13 days. After smoking a joint containing 16-34 mg of ▵9-THC, THC-COOH is detectable in plasma for 2-7 days. A clinical study carried out among 52 volunteers showed that THC-COOH was detectable in serum from 3.5 to 74.3 hours. Initial concentration was between 14-49 ng/mL. This was considerably less than the THC-COOH detection time of 25 days in a single chronic user.”
