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Pot testing for NYPD police officers may soon go up in smoke.
The city on Wednesday initially ordered the country’s largest police department to stop testing cops for marijuana use, officials said.
But the NYPD later backpedaled on the idea.
After initially releasing a statement saying they would halt the tests, the NYPD said it was mulling over the order.
The Post obtained a memo from the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of legal matters dated July 11 that states “starting immediately, the department should only drug test a member of service for marijuana if there is reasonable suspicion that the member is impaired by marijuana on the job.”
The NYPD later issued a letter to all commands that said cops are “not permitted to use cannabis on or off duty.”
Previously, a police officer would be automatically fired if they tested positive for marijuana, a process referred to as being “doled out” in police speak.
Not all members of the department gave the possible change a high grade.
“I don’t agree with it at all, but I’m an old-time cop,” one police officer with decades on the job said. “I think it sets a bad example. What’s next, shooting heroin?”
A Manhattan cop with more than two decades on the job agreed and added that he believed the NYPD was making the move to lower standards so more candidates could be hired to make up for a jump in recent retirements.
“This is unreal,” a police officer with more than two decades on the job said, initially questioning if the end to pot testing was “fake news.”
“This is all for people who can’t get into the academy because they test positive for marijuana,” the cop said. “I guess you’re going to rehire all the people who doled out? This department is going downhill. What happens if the person shoots and kills somebody and they find out they were high on marijuana?”
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