Taxi drivers took to cocaine or marijuana at unusually high rates in 2013 — more than doubling the number of cabbies who got sacked for drug use a year earlier, records show.
There were 51 hacks who lost their licenses after testing positive for controlled substances last year — a significant hike from the 20 who were canned in 2012 and 34 in 2011.
This year, 16 drivers have already had their Taxi and Limousine Commission licenses yanked for failing their annual drug test — including one who tested positive for a party-hardy mix of coke and weed.
“The ingestion of any controlled substance is incompatible with driving a taxicab,” an administrative law judge wrote of the Jan. 2 termination hearing for cabby Jean Butler — who tested positive for both drugs in early December.
Since 2010, the TLC licenses of 167 hacks have been pulled because of drug use, according to agency figures.
Others have surrendered their licenses voluntarily after a positive drug test, officials said.
TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg noted that there are currently more than 108,000 licensed taxi drivers.
“While the number of positive drug tests is statistically incredibly small, we take our responsibility to public safety seriously to the extent that we would continue to be as vigilant even if a single applicant were to test positive,” he said.
Nearly all of those busted have skipped their disciplinary hearings — leaving the arbitrators no reason to have mercy.