New York's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) came out yesterday publicly announcing, they’ll no longer be looking for personal amounts of cannabis in the airport any more. In fact, even if they do find cannabis they aren’t going to stop people for cannabis, or even confiscate it.
It isn’t worth their time — particularly now that it’s been recreationallly legalized in that state. Which is why, if you’re carrying less than three ounces with you in an airport in NY, the TSA isn’t going to give you a second sniff.
But, where can you actually fly to? Because, technically, airports are federally regulated facilities, which means that possession of any amount of cannabis is akin to possessing meth, cocaine, heroin or MDMA. Depending on where you land, if you’re caught carrying cannabis from NY you could be ticketed, arrested and likely locked up without a second thought.
However, there are some safe(ish) exceptions.
For example, any flights between two NY airports will obviously be safe. But you can also rest easy landing at LAX, where they've actually created a policy that allows passengers to possess/carry up to 28.5 grams of flower and 8 grams of concentrate cannabis through the facility — despite the federal prohibition.
Denver is a little trickier, though. DIA’s stated policy on cannabis is that they’ve sided with the federal government and maintain their ban on “possession, use, or transportation of marijuana on airport premises.” However, at the same time, their dogs are not drug dogs — and as reported by NPR, DIA's dogs are strictly bomb dogs, there for the sole purpose of detecting threats and "aren't allowed to" care about marijuana.
So, it’s a roll of the dice: Denver’s TSA isn’t looking for marijuana or other drugs. But if they find them, there could be serious consequences.
As states around the country start to legalize cannabis, and federal cannabis legislation moves closer and closer to President Biden’s desk, the prospect of traveling with weed will invariably become less risky. Statements like this from NY’s TSA officials aren’t menial steps in the fight for legalization — these are important cracks in the levee of prohibition.
Leave a Reply