A Boston bus driver, Jinhuan Chen, was arrested this week and charged with 38 counts of reckless endangerment because of a March incident during which he consumed gummies laced with THC while on the job. Chen allegedly blacked out behind the wheel while transporting passengers home from a casino.
Chen was snacking on “Smokiez Edibles Cannabis Infused Fruit Chews” when he and his 38 passengers were returning from Mohegan Sun Casino on March 13, according to Hearst Connecticut Media. State troopers found him shortly after 3 p.m., after responding to a call about a coach bus on the side of the I-95. Chen had pulled the bus over just inside of Stratford, Connecticut, and was found unconscious by state troopers next to the marijuana edible candies.
Chen was then taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where toxicology reports showed that he had a large level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his bloodstream, The Associated Press reported. An arrest via warrant was made Monday, June 13, and Chen appeared in Bridgeport Superior Court the next day.
The bus driver claims that he was unaware of the gummies’ less innocent ingredients, and assumed they were normal candies.
“I didn’t know it was marijuana,” Chen said through a Chinese interpreter, according to Hearst Connecticut Media. “I didn’t know.”
Chen’s employer, Victor Chen of the “Go Go Sun Tour” bus company, defended the driver.
“He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke but he has a sweet tooth and likes candy,” Victor Chen said, “He picked up a bag of candy at a local market here and didn’t know it had marijuana in it.”
“This would never have happened a couple of years ago but now there’s marijuana everywhere here,” Victor Chen added.
Just last year, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a law legalizing cannabis possession, consumption and distribution. The sales of cannabis in licensed retailers began this year, but the law does not allow usage in the workplace under almost any circumstance. Exceptions are only made to health care and manufacturing industries, and the bill allows employers to “take adverse actions against employees who are impaired at work,” according to Connecticut’s official state website.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Nicholas Bove told Superior Court Judge Ndidi Moses that Jinhuan Chen was lucky none of the passengers were seriously injured, and pushed for a higher bond to be set because of the circumstances, Hearst reported.
Moses set a bond of $25,000 for Jinhuan Chen on Tuesday, June 14. His next court date is set for Aug. 25.