A commercial bus driver has been charged with 38 counts of reckless endangerment after blacking out behind the steering wheel while snacking on gummies he says he didn't know were infused with THC. Jinhuan Chen appeared in Bridgeport Superior Court after being arrested at his home in Boston last week.
Chen was driving 38 passengers from the Mohegan Sun Casino on March 13 when he stopped the bus on the side of Interstate 95 in Stratford. Police said they found Chen slumped unconscious in the driver's seat, next to an open package of Smokies Edibles Cannabis Infused Fruit Chews. Toxicology tests showed Chen had a high level of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, in his bloodstream, prosecutors said. Chen told Judge Ndidi Moses that he had no idea he had been snacking on anything but regular candy. "I didn't know it was marijuana," Chen said through a Chinese interpreter, according to Hearst Connecticut Media. "I didn't know." Victor Chen, the manager of Go Go Sun Tour, the bus company, told Hearst that Jinhuan Chen had been driving for the Boston-based company for 10 years and has an exemplary record. "He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, but he has a sweet tooth and likes candy," Victor Chen said. "This would never have happened a couple of years ago. but now there's marijuana everywhere here," he added.
Understandable confusion
A reader writes: A friend of mine was wanting to treat her young daughter one day and decided it would be a nice idea to take her for ice cream. Having seen a nice-looking place, with a couple of outlets around Auckland painted in a nice pink livery, she took her to Glenfield branch of Peaches & Cream. Thankfully she was able to abort entering the shop at the last minute when on closer inspection it turned out that Peaches & Cream is a chain of adult stores selling sex toys, bondage gear, lingerie, DVDs and performance enhancers. Apparently the close-by Much Moore Ice Cream Company was, indeed, "much more" suitable.
