In New York City, even though marijuana has been legalized for recreational use, TLC-licensed drivers are held to stricter professional standards. The Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) enforces rules that go beyond ordinary traffic laws. Drivers for yellow cabs, green cabs, Uber, Lyft, black car, and livery vehicles can face license suspension or revocation if they are accused of:
The TLC may suspend or revoke a driver’s license.
The impact of a marijuana related suspension is severe for professional drivers.
Many drivers plead guilty thinking it will resolve the issue quickl, but for TLC drivers, the opposite is true. Pleading guilty to a marijuana-related offense can result in a number of issues.
There are several defenses that are worth considering. First, if you have a valid medical marijuana prescription, you may be able to get your case dismissed. New York law permits the use of medical marijuana under the Compassionate Care Act. In Taxi & Limousine Comm’n v W.R., OATH INDEX 2503/17 (July 14, 2017) a driver with a TLC license failed a drug test due to marijuana that he was taking as prescribed to him by his doctor. The TLC ruled that because the driver’s ingestion of marijuana was entirely legal, that it would be a violation of New York City’s Human Rights Law and discriminatory to revoke his TLC license.
Second, if you are able to establish that you have been regularly taking CBD oil at the time you failed the drug test, you may be able to show that your positive drug test was a result of the CBD oil products, not the ingestion of marijuana. You are going to need to show concrete evidence that you were taking CBD oil. This might include receipts dating from the time when you failed the drug test showing that you purchased CBD oil products. You may also be able to get a witness such as a smoke shop employee to testify that they had first hand knowledge of your regular purchase or use of CBD oil. I have had some success with this argument based on an article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) which researched various CBD oil products and concluded that many of them had sufficient THC in them to result in intoxication or impairment.
Third, if you failed a drug test by unknowingly ingesting marijuana, you may be able to argue that you inadvertently failed a drug test. In order to prevail with this type of defense, you are going to have to document exactly how and when you unknowingly ingested the marijuana. Perhaps you have a witness who can testify that they were responsible for providing you with edibles without your knowledge.
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