A New York Police Division memo made public on Wednesday suggested officers that they’d now not face drug exams for hashish, though the division rapidly reversed course and introduced that screenings for weed would proceed whereas the coverage is reviewed.
“The New York Metropolis Regulation Division has directed the NYPD to stop all random, scheduled and pre-employment testing for marijuana,” an NYPD spokeswoman said early Wednesday. “The Division will proceed to manage marijuana screenings to personnel when there may be indications of impairment and is reviewing its present insurance policies in gentle of this directive.”
The memo from the Regulation Division, which was dated July 11, mentioned that such screenings for marijuana are inconsistent with final 12 months’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which bans repercussions on workers for off-duty leisure hashish use. After receiving the directive from town’s Regulation Division, the NYPD Commissioner for Authorized Issues despatched a memo to division heads to inform them of the coverage change.
“The rationale behind this willpower is that there isn’t any check for marijuana that conclusively determines present intoxication, making it not possible to find out by drug check alone whether or not an worker has examined optimistic for marijuana due to improper use on the job or use throughout statutorily protected off-hours use,” reads NYPD the memo.
“Due to this fact, beginning instantly, the Division ought to solely drug check a member of service for marijuana if there may be affordable suspicion that the member is impaired by marijuana on the job in such a way that impacts their job duties or the place there’s a federal requirement mandating testing for marijuana use, equivalent to title which requires a Industrial Driver License,” the NYPD memo continues.
Information Rapidly Walked Again
Nevertheless, an NYPD spokesperson mentioned later within the day that police division leaders had been speaking with representatives of the Regulation Division about potential conflicts with the coverage and federal legislation. Within the meantime, implementing the coverage will likely be placed on maintain.
“Whereas these discussions proceed, there isn’t any change in NYPD insurance policies, procedures, or testing protocols relating to the usage of Marijuana by uniformed members of the service,” the spokesperson introduced.
NYPD Chief Keechant Sewell subsequently issued a memo to all commanders noting that cops are nonetheless banned from smoking weed, writing that “present division insurance policies that prohibit the usage of marijuana stay in impact. Members of the service will not be permitted to make use of hashish on or off responsibility and can proceed to be topic to random, scheduled, and for-cause drug screening.”
Jennifer Cabrera, an legal professional with the hashish legislation agency Vicente Sederberg’s New York workplace, mentioned that cops needs to be free from drug screenings for hashish.
“Officers of the NYPD needs to be free to eat hashish of their free time identical to every other resident of New York,” Cabrera wrote in an e-mail to Excessive Instances. “Simply as officers can take pleasure in a drink or go to a bar off responsibility, they need to be capable of responsibly take pleasure in hashish.”
FDNY To Finish Testing for Pot
The Regulation Division directive additionally apparently was issued to leaders on the New York Metropolis’s fireplace division. A consultant from the Uniformed Firefighters Affiliation (UFA), the union that represents town’s firefighters, mentioned that its members would now not be topic to drug testing for hashish.
“The UFA has been knowledgeable that new Division tips are forthcoming relating to adjustments to the present FDNY drug testing coverage,” the UFA mentioned. “We have now been knowledgeable that the Division will now not randomly check members for marijuana use.”
The union went on to notice that firefighters will not be permitted to be excessive at work.
“Members are reminded that they have to be match for responsibility after they report back to work, and members should be topic to testing whereas at work if they seem unfit for responsibility,” the union mentioned.
A New York State Police spokesman instructed reporters that the company has not modified its coverage and would proceed to check its officers for medication together with hashish. Below the coverage, officers are topic to each random and scheduled drug testing.
Final 12 months, the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Legal guidelines issued a press release calling for an finish to office drug testing for hashish.
“Suspicionless marijuana testing within the office, equivalent to pre-employment drug screening, is just not now, nor has it ever been, an evidence-based coverage,” wrote NORML deputy dirctor Paul Armentano. “Reasonably, this discriminatory observe is a holdover from the zeitgeist of the Eighties ‘warfare on medication.’ However instances have modified; attitudes have modified, and in lots of locations, the marijuana legal guidelines have modified. It’s time for office insurance policies to adapt to this new actuality and to stop punishing workers for actions they interact in throughout their off-hours that pose no office security menace.”