TSA Changes Rules on Medical Cannabis (Quietly)
 

Heard a snippet on my local news about changing rules on Medical Cannabis. Seems to find this announcement one has to go looking for it as TSA has kept very quiet about it.

Medical Marijuana

After reading the blurb from TSA I'm not so sure that this doesn't muddy the water even more.

......... and as always:

This is no different than TSA's stance regarding prescription drugs. As someone pointed out to me recently, TSA's 'Can I take?' page says medical nitroglycerine is permitted - except when it isn't.

The final decision rests with the TSA officer.

A more truthful and accurate way of stating it would be: "Nothing is allowed unless a screener says it is".

Believe I was the one to point out the change regarding nitroglycerin. Before the noted change there was no specific mention at all.
And as I said in the original comment I think TSA muddied the water on medical cannabis and still leaves the provision that the rules are whatever a single screener says they are at any given time. No way to conduct screening in my opinion. No way to hold TSA accountable for whatever process is in play on any day or CYA to the MAX!

It's amazing to me that the agency who swears up one side and down the other that they don't search for drugs has now given the American people permission to fly with medical pot.

Wait - what happened to the mandatory reporting requirement? I thought TSA claims that any alleged drugs encountered 'incidental' to a search MUST be reported to LE.

I'm surprised some enterprising TSO hasn't bypassed local LE and called the feds. Transporting illegal drugs across state lines is a federal crime, right? And marijuana is still illegal under federal law, no exceptions.

This is my standard response to both the TSA blurb on "what can I take" and when individuals ask if they can bring a particular item on board:

The Federal prohibition on marijuana seems like quite an albatross around their necks at this point.
Do you want the doctors or the Feds to tell you what's an effective or reasonable medicine?

I don't understand how screeners now have the individual discretion to violate a federal mandatory reporting law.

Or even better an underpaid TSO.

A close reading of TSA's announcement reveals that very little has changed. There is only one drug approved by the FDA that is made from cannabis sativa, just one. The other part of the change is CBD oil made from hemp .

This article explains both components of the rule well

TSA updates 'medical marijuana' regulations to reflect FDA-approved drug containing cannabidiol

So those living in states that are in violation of current federal law will see no change.

Yes, but is mandatory reporting required by an actual law? We have yet to see any CFR reference to mandatory reporting of suspected illegal substances.

TSA clerks wouldn't understand the differences if it hit them between the eyes. We are told that they aren't trained on drug interdiction at the academy (and, of course, we believe it), so they will have to rely on their own personal experience or what they see on HBO.

Yes, we are still waiting for that piece of information. I'm guessing it doesn't exist.

They sure don't seem to be able to point out the exact language that requires such reporting. Just more "Trust Us" which is the last thing I would do for TSA.

An internal government agency policy should not impact the public. We see local and state governments that have decided to not cooperate with certain federal agencies.

edit to add: It should be no great task to recite the rule that requires such reporting if there is one.

I dont understand the fixation that if it's not in a statute or published in the CFR a federal agency cannot place on its employees a requirement (in this case, to notify proper authority of a suspected violation of law) on how to act/what to do in certain situations and the implication that absent such statute or CFR the employer's requirements are invalid.

Yeah, I was reading an earlier post and wondered if TSOs are going to start reading labels again. Last time they did, I got my nitro pills confiscated.

How much training will TSOs get to enable them to distinguish between hemp-based CBD products (legal) and marijuana-based CBD products (not legal)?

Or will they follow the usual TSA practice: when in doubt, confiscate, even if you are 100% sure it poses no threat to aviation security.

If it is mandatory, that means no TSO is allowed to ignore the law/rule/regulation at his/her discretion.

Now it sounds llke we have yet another TSA 'law' that really boils down to TSOs doing whatever they want.

The stupidest part? TSA routinely misses firearms which probably aren't enough to take down an airplane. They could certainly be used to cause bodily harm, but so could a laptop or martial arts skills.

So instead of paying more attention to screening instead of cellphones and personal chit-chat, TSA decides to make it clear that contrary to the evidence, TSA isn't specifically targeting drugs, although it will summon LE and make a report even if the TSO mistakenly identifies a baggie of oregano as marijuana. Additionally, the screeners who aren't looking for drugs and aren't trained to recognize drugs will now be tasked with reading labels to determine if CBD ointment is hemp or marijuana-derived.

All of this effort to tackle drugs that can't jeopardize aviation safety in any way. In the meantime, they continue to open containers of powders at checkpoints, knowing that the powders could be anthrax or fentanyl, genuine threats to public safety, on or off a plane.

I'm assuming a 100% confiscation policy.
I ain't bringing my stash to the airport so some TSO has a better weekend.

I'd like to know if weed confiscations are handled the same way firearm confiscations are handled, ie, LE takes charge of the confiscated material for proper disposal. I read that some airport has a bin for weed disposal next to the can for liquid disposal pre-checkpoint. I'd want to know who takes custody of that disposal bin and what audit trail there is.

Wouldn't the person holding the weed disposal bin be in violation of federal law for simple possession?​​​​​​

Not if it's a TSO because the laws that apply to TSOs are SSI, so we have no way of knowing what is allowed and what isn't. They take possession of prescription meds that are not their own, so presumably illegal drugs would be handled the same way.

Don't let Karate Man fly.....

I'm sure that when the resident TSOs on this board say that TSOs are "required" to notify LEOs when they suspect an illegal substance, they mean solely that TSA internal regulations require such a report.

What we're asking is, under what authority did TSA enact such a requirement on their screening personnel, which not only has absolutely nothing to do with aviation security, but actually compromises security by wasting resources, disrupting/interrupting screening operations, and distracts other TSA personnel from their jobs. Not to mention the waste of time when local LEOs are summoned for something that may or may not be an illegal substance in their jurisdiction, and the black eye it gives TSA in general when they hold up travelers for false alarms, often scaring the bejeebus out of bystanders who don't know whether the cops are there for a bag of oregano twenty pounds of C4 shaped like a teddy bear.

Basically, if they're not required by some federal law to report suspected illegal substances, then they shouldn't be reporting them because such reporting presents a genuine security risk to the traveling public.

If something is not a prohibited item, and it's not illegal in the jurisdiction where the report is made, if the substance confiscated? Is the traveler allowed to continue on their journey? I want to know the answers to these questions as well.

Karate man bruises on the INSIDE.

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I fail to see the same "fixation" as you apparently see. What I see is a failure of anyone from TSA being able to point to the federal law that requires TSA screeners to report suspected drugs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzanne.../#1910a99831e6

That never really made sense to me. If you are a federal worker who knows the law being broken is a federal law, why are the local authorities summoned? They have no jurisdiction and less knowledge of federal laws than federal LEs. Unless local muscle is needed to physically secure the accused pax until the federal authorities arrive, I can't see why they would or should be involved.

I think it would be interesting to know how many times TSOs summoned LEs for pax with medical marijuana flying entirely within the state where it is legal. IIRC, there was a sheriff in Oakland (?) who refused to stand down on the issue. Seems to me someone (county?) had to pass a law specifically targeting his office and addressing his refusal to follow local law over federal law.

I think the real issue there was that his political grandstanding was a waste of resources much better applied elsewhere.

In my 42 years in the federal government, I have NEVER received a briefing or read a directive that REQUIRED me to reports illegal substances or anything else. Remember that the TSA also applied this "federal law" to large amounts of cash and asserted that EVERY federal employee had the same reporting requirements as clerks.

Back in the early days (1980s) I was told, as an Air Force officer, to look for dilated pupils (no joke!) in the enlisted troops as a sign of drug use. Also, anyone who missed a lot of Mondays by being sick "probably" had a substance abuse problem.

How long and how many screeners are taken from their screening job to report finding a persons stash? I'm not a consumer of cannabis, don't even know how to find any, but for personal use amounts I feel TSA can better spend their time elsewhere.

I've gone through Title 21 rather closely and the particular authorities TSA claims do not seem to be included. If somebody can prove me wrong, I'd appreciate being enlightened.

As an aside, the list of "controlled substances" is so long that I am certain that illegal drugs are carried onto flights every single day and TSA is not aware of it.

I'm speaking more to the manpower impact on an individual checkpoint. I suspect that stashes are first identified as an unknown organic by the x-ray operator, then resolved by a hand search. At that point the screener is suppose to call for a supervisor who decides to involve police. As seen in numerous videos screeners tend to mass around any checkpoint incident which further reduces focus on the real task of finding WEI. I believe That TSA is actively looking for non-WEI items, seeing as how TSA sees itself as a quasi Law Enforcement agency, which reduces the effectiveness of TSA's true mission.

Be sure to read comment #10 in this thread.