Since recreational marijuana was legalized statewide in March 2021, weed now seems ubiquitous on New York City roadways. At smoke shops, customers drive off after blazing up. In motion or at red lights, smoke wafts from car windows, the smell mingling with exhaust fumes in a pungent miasma.
“It’s coming from all walks of life. It’s all over the city,” said Jayson Vasquez, 39, who has worked as a bike messenger in New York City for 13 years. He sees and smells more and more drivers smoking, even as they negotiate heavy weekday traffic, puffing away behind the wheel and straying from their lanes.
“You’re like, ‘Hey, hey, HEY!’” he said, “and they’re just not paying attention. It’s a real problem for me.”
State law still forbids smoking pot before or while driving. On paper, the consequences for driving high are similar to drunken-driving charges: First offenders face fines of up to $1,000, a six-month license revocation and possibly as much as a year in jail.
But arrests are scant in New York, a city of 8.5 million residents with more than two million cars and 36,000 police officers. Police officials said they arrested 204 people last year for driving under the influence of drugs, and at least 83 so far this year. It is unclear how many arrests were for marijuana, because police officials do not break down arrests by type of substance. By comparison, there were 3,291 arrests last year for drinking and driving.
“The arrest numbers are embarrassingly…
