STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8065
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 15, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. SKOUFIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to prohibiting
the possession of an open container of cannabis, cannabis product, or
cannabis paraphernalia in the passenger area of certain motor vehicles
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 1227 of the vehicle and traffic
2 law, as amended by chapter 92 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 1. The drinking of alcoholic beverages [or consumption of cannabis,]
5 or the possession of an open container containing an alcoholic bever-
6 age[,] in a motor vehicle located upon the public highways or right-of-
7 way public highway is prohibited. Any operator or passenger violating
8 this section shall be guilty of a traffic infraction.
9 The provisions of this section shall not be deemed to prohibit the
10 drinking of alcoholic beverages[, the consumption of cannabis by means
11 other than burning,] or the possession of an open container containing
12 an alcoholic beverage by passengers in passenger vehicles operated
13 pursuant to a certificate or permit issued by the department of trans-
14 portation or the United States department of transportation. Further-
15 more, the provisions of this section shall not be deemed to prohibit the
16 possession of wine which is: (a) resealed in accordance with the
17 provisions of subdivision four of section eighty-one of the alcoholic
18 beverage control law; and (b) is transported in the vehicle's trunk or
19 is transported behind the last upright seat or in an area not normally
20 occupied by the driver or passenger in a motor vehicle that is not
21 equipped with a trunk.
22 § 2. The vehicle and traffic law is amended by adding a new section
23 1227-a to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13135-01-5
S. 8065 2
1 § 1227-a. Consumption or possession of cannabis in certain motor vehi-
2 cles. 1. The consumption of cannabis or cannabis product or the
3 possession of an open container containing cannabis or cannabis product
4 in the passenger area of a motor vehicle located upon the public high-
5 ways, right-of-way public highways, or upon any way or in any place to
6 which the public has a right of access or upon any way or in any place
7 to which members of the public have access as invitees or licensees is
8 prohibited. Any operator or passenger violating this section shall be
9 guilty of a traffic infraction.
10 The provisions of this section shall not be deemed to prohibit the
11 consumption of cannabis or cannabis product by means other than burning,
12 or the possession of an open container containing cannabis or cannabis
13 product by passengers in passenger vehicles operated pursuant to a
14 certificate or permit issued by the department of transportation or the
15 United States department of transportation.
16 2. For the purposes of this section:
17 (a) "open container" shall mean that the package containing cannabis
18 or cannabis products has its seal broken or from which the contents have
19 been partially removed or consumed.
20 (b) "passenger area" shall mean the area designed to seat the driver
21 and passengers while the motor vehicle is in operation and any area that
22 is readily accessible to the driver or passenger while in a seated posi-
23 tion; provided however that the passenger area shall not include a motor
24 vehicle's trunk, locked glove compartment or the living quarters of a
25 house coach or house trailer, or if a motor vehicle is not equipped with
26 a trunk, the area behind the last upright seat or an area not normally
27 occupied by the driver or passenger.
28 (c) "passenger vehicle" shall mean a vehicle designed to carry ten or
29 more passengers and used to carry passengers for profit or hire.
30 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
31 it shall have become a law.
