Wow, going from "suspected" crime to "off-chance" crime includes, well, everything. "TSO sees knife" = crime. "TSO sees plastic bag of dark green organic matter" = suspected crime. "TSO sees dress shirt in dry cleaning bag" = there is always an Off-Chance the pax might use the dry cleaning bag to suffocate himself or his sleeping seatmate = long shot potential crime.

Hi, Folksy.

Please correct if I am misinformed, but it has been mentioned that TSOs receive no drug recognition training. If so, absent personal experience, how do they know an illegal drug when they see one? Screener searching bag sees a rolled up baggie one-half inch diameter in bottom of bag. It did not show up on the xray as a knife, or orange for explosive, and I know of no explosive that looks like green leafy material. The baggie would have five or so layers of plastic wrapped around it, preventing a clear view of the contents. It is not a threat to aviation. What happens?

Does the screener say "the pax is overweight, thus I suspect he is a profesional chef on the way to a cooking competition. He is safety conscious enough to not bring a spice jar on the plane, as broken glass could be dangerous, thus I suspect he is carrying his cooking spice in a plastic baggie and I conclude that the "not a threat to aviation" in the baggie is oregano."

Or is it "The pax is overweight, thus proof of frequent attacks of the munchies, a clear indicator of drug use. In order to secure that career promotion Big Catch, I suspect the worse and conclude that the "not a threat to aviation" in the baggie is the illegal drug mari-juwanna, which I have never seen and never been trained on what it looks like. Bust him, Denno."

On the other note, how does TSA train for intra state travel in California, which has a liberal medical marihuana law. There must be persons with prescriptions who fly LAX-SFO. How often does TSA find legal green leafy stuff in a carry on? What happens?