Edibles have swiftly become a crowd favorite in the cannabis community. Their rising popularity owes much to their discrete nature &#; gone are the days of suspicious smoke clouds or pungent aromas. Edibles offer a stealthy way to enjoy the benefits of cannabis, and they've captured the hearts of both recreational users and medical patients seeking relief.
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As the legal landscape surrounding cannabis continues to evolve, recreational cannabis is now waving its green flag in a growing number of states nationwide. More and more people have access to these tasty THC-infused delights, leading to the ever-pressing question: Can you really take your beloved edibles with you on a plane in your checked bag?
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What are Edibles?
In a nutshell, edibles are a delightful category of cannabis-infused products that offer a unique and tasty way to experience the effects of cannabinoids like THC and CBD. Unlike traditional methods of smoking or vaping, edibles allow you to savor the goodness of cannabis without any combustion involved.
These delectable treats come in various forms, with popular products including mouth watering brownies, cookies, candies, gummies, pills, chocolates, and even beverages (some are even vegan!). They offer a wide array of flavors and dosages to suit different preferences and needs, making them an accessible choice for both newbies and seasoned cannabis enthusiasts.
One significant reason behind the surging popularity of edibles is their discretion. Unlike smoking, which might draw attention or raise eyebrows, edibles allow users to enjoy cannabis without the telltale signs. This subtle approach has made them a hit among individuals seeking a more private and inconspicuous way to unwind and experience the benefits of cannabis.
Not only that, edibles have become somewhat notorious for the length and intensity of their effects. The reason for these extended effects is the way THC is metabolized differently when ingested via edibles. When you smoke, THC is absorbed by the lungs, goes straight into your bloodstream, and then to the brain, providing a near-instant effect. But eating an edible causes THC to pass through your digestive system first, which, of course, takes longer. Most importantly, however, the liver breaks down THC into a different compound called 11-hydroxy-THC, which may produce more substantial effects than inhaled THC.
So, whether you're nibbling on a scrumptious THC-infused cookie to enhance a movie night or sipping on a refreshing CBD beverage to relax after a long day, edibles offer a delightful journey into the world of cannabis consumption that many have come to adore.
Federal Law and Flying With Edibles
All airspace over the US is federal airspace and falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. So, state laws don't apply.
Under federal law, &#;marijuana&#; is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance. This means it's considered illegal at the federal level, regardless of whether it's for medical or recreational use.
Despite the growing acceptance of medical cannabis in many states, the federal government still views it as a substance with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
On the other hand, hemp &#; often characterized by its low THC content and high CBD levels &#; was given a lifeline with the passage of the Farm Bill. This bill removed hemp and its derivatives from the list of controlled substances, effectively making it legal under federal law. However, remember that the legal definition of hemp requires it to contain no more than 0.3% THC by dry weight.
So, how does the federal government view taking cannabis across state lines? Well, regardless of whether cannabis is legal in the states involved, it remains illegal at the federal level. Even if you're traveling between two states where both have legalized cannabis in some form, flying with cannabis - including edibles - in your checked baggage remains a violation of federal law.
The TSA and Edibles in Checked Bags
When it comes to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and its regulations surrounding edibles, it's important to remember the fact that they operate under the umbrella of the federal government. As a result, their stance on cannabis aligns with federal law.
So, what exactly are the TSA regulations regarding traveling with edibles?
Whether you're carrying edibles in your checked bags or your carry-ons, the rules remain consistent &#; they strictly prohibit high-THC cannabis products on airplanes. However, they have updated their rules to allow CBD oil, legal under the Farm Bill, to fly.
While the TSA's primary focus is on security threats related to terrorism and potential dangers on flights, they also don't turn a blind eye to prohibited substances, including cannabis. Their primary mission is not actively searching for drugs. Still, they are trained to identify and handle any illegal items they come across during the screening process.
The TSA agents must follow federal law, which means they will report the findings to the appropriate authorities. The consequences of being caught with cannabis in an airport can vary depending on the location and the amount found. Still, it's crucial to note that federal penalties can be severe, ranging from fines to potential felonies and jail time.
In the spirit of smooth travels and avoiding any unnecessary hassles, it's best to leave your beloved edibles at home when flying. Instead, explore legal cannabis options available at your destination or consider alternative consumption methods before or after your flight.
Legal Consequences of Flying With Edibles
Flying with cannabis, including edibles, can lead to some serious legal consequences, regardless of whether you're carrying it in your checked bags or your carry-ons. Federal law strictly prohibits cannabis, and the TSA adheres to these regulations.
If you're caught with cannabis or cannabis-infused edibles in your possession at the airport security screening, you may face potential penalties under federal law.
Even if you're traveling between states where cannabis is legal, the federal government's stance remains unchanged. Crossing state lines with cannabis, even if both states have legalized it, still violates federal law, and the potential legal repercussions are still in effect.
Now, what about individuals with a medical cannabis card?
While possessing a medical cannabis card grants you legal access to cannabis in your home state, it does not provide immunity from federal regulations when it comes to interstate and international travel. Unfortunately, the federal ban on cannabis extends to medical cannabis users as well, and the TSA cannot permit you to fly with any cannabis products, even if it's for medicinal purposes.
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As for international travel, the consequences become even more complex and severe. Traveling with cannabis internationally is an absolute no-go. Many countries have stringent drug laws, and being caught attempting to bring cannabis into another country can result in severe legal penalties, including lengthy imprisonment.
Always thoroughly research the laws and regulations of your destination country before traveling, as ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
What Can Medical Cannabis Patients Do Instead?
For medical cannabis patients looking to travel with their medication, navigating the complex web of regulations can be daunting. However, there are alternative options that can ensure a smoother journey while still prioritizing your health needs.
One viable option for medical cannabis patients is to plan their travels to states where cannabis is legal and available for medicinal use whenever possible. Many states have implemented reciprocity laws that allow out-of-state medical cannabis patients to obtain and use medical cannabis within their borders.
Before traveling, research and identify states with such reciprocity laws and familiarize yourself with their specific requirements and limitations.
For patients who rely on CBD-infused products for medicinal purposes, federally-legal hemp-derived CBD can offer a compliant solution. As long as these products contain no more than 0.3% THC, they are permissible under federal law and can be safely carried along according to TSA guidelines. However, it's always prudent to review the specific CBD regulations of your destination state to ensure full compliance.
Traveling with medical cannabis is undoubtedly a challenging issue, and it's crucial to prioritize your safety, well-being, and compliance with the law.
While flying with cannabis edibles in checked baggage remains prohibited, exploring alternative options such as traveling to cannabis-friendly states or using federally legal hemp-derived products can help medical cannabis patients navigate their journeys with peace of mind and without running afoul of the law.
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References
The information in this article and any included images or charts are for educational purposes only. This information is neither a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional legal advice or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about laws, regulations, or your health, you should always consult with an attorney, physician or other licensed professional.
So you&#;ve gone and done it: You have procured the weed. You&#;ve maybe even enjoyed some of it already. Perhaps you&#;ve taken advantage of America&#;s ever-growing recreational landscape and toked after hitting the slopes of Aspen or wandered down the neon-lit boulevards of Las Vegas as an edible kicks in. Maybe you&#;ve had a visit from your friendly, bike-bound NY neighborhood delivery guy. However it happened, the bag has been secured, and now you&#;d like to bring some of it home/on your next trip. You start to type the inevitable question into Google: Should I bring weed on an airplane?
It&#;s an innocent enough question, and a very common scenario: You want to move some weed from Point A, where you can acquire it easily, to Point B, where you cannot. Zero judgments here&#;and we&#;ve got your back. We spoke to airport officials and other experts and assembled a handy guide on how to transport your pot without getting caught.
It&#;s good to remain cautious even if you&#;ve decided to pack some pot. This first bit of advice is simple&#;don&#;t test your luck. Fly with small amounts. For old-school nugs (aka flower), an eighth is a reliable standard. That&#;s 3.5 grams, and it is the max we recommend trying out for this experiment. Follow that same logic with edibles, et al. Think logically here. The more product you&#;re packing, the higher likelihood the TSA will spot it, and, at the very least, make you throw it out. And that would suck! Weed is expensive.
Not in your checked luggage. We know that may sound intimidating and that some of you will be sweating while thinking about those buds from take-off to landing, but trust us&#;your best bet is to keep the goodies with you. The TSA conducts random searches on checked luggage all the time. Your carry-on bags, on the other hand, are likely to go unsearched beyond the usual security checkpoint. So long as you&#;re smart about it.
For this part, we urge you not to overthink things. It sounds counterintuitive, but the reality is&#;the TSA really is not looking for weed. They are looking for items that can take down an airplane. The best, most successful acts of deception are always those that deviate as little as possible from the truth, so, in this same vein, skew closer to &#;in plain sight&#; than &#;in a jar of peanut butter&#; when it comes to getting weed through security.
Image by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
To TSA scanners, weed is a sort of nondescript blur. Internal bodily storage no longer needs to be on the table. If you have a few extra joints, just put them in a cigarette pack and then put that cigarette pack towards the bottom of your carry-on. Smell is a factor with flower, so you still want to avoid bringing it out in the open. For actual buds, one Thrillist writer finds this trick to be the way to go: Empty any opaque bottle of over-the-counter medication like Ibuprofen. Put the weed in it. Put some cotton balls on top of weed. Put pills on top of cotton balls until it&#;s filled to the brim.
If you&#;ve got TSA PreCheck, you can put a baggie in your shoe. If you&#;ve got a reusable joint container, you can break up a couple buds to fit inside and then toss the plastic tube amongst other purse necessities like chapstick and hand sanitizers.
Even if your pot does get caught, there&#;s a very good chance nothing will happen to you. Regional TSA Public Affairs Manager Carrie Harmon points Thrillist to the following statement: &#;TSA&#;s focus is on terrorism and security threats to the aircraft and its passengers. TSA&#;s screening procedures, which are governed by federal law, are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers. As has always been the case, if during the security screening procedures an officer discovers an item that may violate the law, TSA refers the matter to law enforcement. Law enforcement officials determine whether to initiate a criminal investigation.&#;
That means that if you&#;re trying to get some pot out of Portland and a TSA officer finds it, you&#;d be referred to a Portland cop who would make you throw it out, possibly while making a Phish joke. Then you&#;d be free to go. If you&#;re leaving a state where marijuana possession is still a criminal offense, we aren&#;t really sure why you&#;re trying to fly it out of there in the first place, but chances are the TSA personnel in Waco are far less accustomed to spotting weed than the ones in Denver.
As far as traveling through the airport is concerned, the same rules apply for both medical and recreational cannabis. &#;Federal law doesn't recognize medical marijuana, so in policy, it's the same thing,&#; says Morgan Fox, Political Director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a nonprofit that advocates for the reform of cannabis laws in the US. "In practice, [whether or not you get caught] is largely dependent on the situation, the location, and the amounts in question."
Edibles are the easiest to fly with by far. Gummies go into an empty bag of Haribo gummy bears. Shatter and wax go into one of those weird honey candy bags. And so on and so forth. Lookalike packaging will keep the security guard moving as they search for your tweezers or those scissors your stoned ass forget to leave at the Airbnb. And that brings us to a very important point: Make sure everything else in your bag complies. What is TSA looking for? Bombs, primarily! After that, anything metal. And then&#;liquid bombs! Don&#;t tempt fate by attracting security with any sort of liquid in your bags.
Gone are the days when authorities confused vape cartridges with USB drives. However, again&#;the TSA isn&#;t looking for weed. The TSA looks for liquids, C-4, and crossbows. If they are searching your bag, chances are you left something else in there you shouldn&#;t have. Because of the restrictions on liquids, if you&#;re packing vape cartridges make sure you have less than three ounces. We recommend storing them in the same pocket as pens, chapstick, maybe a nail file&#;similar looking innocent items.
Thrillist reached out to Heath Montgomery, previously the Director of Media Relations at Denver International Airport and currently the Vice President of Communications and Marketing at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. These were his two cents on dime bag traffic: &#;Generally, the airport has a policy that prohibits the possession, consumption, etc. of any marijuana products on airport property,&#; Montgomery says. &#;When a person is found to have marijuana on them [an amount legal under Colorado law] at the TSA checkpoints, a Denver police officer typically explains the airport&#;s rules and asks the passenger to dispose of the marijuana. To date&#;every single person who has been contacted about this has voluntarily complied with our request and either taken it home or thrown it away. The TSA only contacts a handful of people&#;out of millions&#;about marijuana each year. The numbers have been so small that the police no longer track these contacts."
&#;Basically, people seem to be well informed that it is illegal under federal law to fly with marijuana, and that the airport prohibits the possession of any amount of marijuana, and the vast majority of travelers are simply not bringing it to the airport," Montgomery says.
Do what you will with that information.
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CBD&#;s whole thing is that it contains no (or very little) THC, which is the psychoactive component of marijuana to which the law applies. In , the TSA updated its policy to allow CBD containing less than .3% THC, but we wouldn&#;t sweat it overthinking that part too much. Unless you&#;re in a very red state and also profoundly unlucky, CBD is fine. It is very unlikely that TSA is going to care about your CBD when you can probably purchase an $8 CBD latte on many airport premises right after you get through security.
Light &#;er up! Just kidding&#;keep the goods where they&#;re packed until you&#;re settling in at your final, final destination. Basically, you&#;re in the clear at this point though. Just remember that when you land, chances are you&#;re touching down in less-friendly territory than where you just were. You have a better chance of being busted by local cops for smoking and driving than while going through airport security.
Not flying to your destination, or not a fan of flying period? You&#;ve got options. Analog travel by foot or by bike is an easy, weed-friendly route for short distances, but going by car is something different entirely. The riskiest option you have, bar none, is driving. Cops from non-legalized states have been known to target incoming cars with plates from those with headier laws.
If you must drive, don&#;t bring flower; the smell will be your downfall. Pack some gummies or a vape pen in the bottom of a bag and hit the road&#;just be sure to stay right at the speed limit. A piece of advice received from a longtime criminal defense attorney: When people get caught breaking the law, it&#;s almost always because they&#;re breaking more than one.
The answer to this question is a hard no. "I would heavily recommend against anybody traveling internationally with cannabis," Fox says. Even if you're going to a country where weed is legal, which is really only the case in a handful of places, the laws surrounding cannabis are all pretty nuanced. As a stranger in that country, you don't want to misinterpret them. It's entirely possible that by trying to bring cannabis into the country, you might be violating some sort of customs or tariff laws.
"Even if it turns out that there's nothing to be charged with, that doesn't mean you won't have to sit in a holding cell at the airport for hours or days while the matter gets dealt with, or potentially be ejected from the country," Fox says. "There are still quite a few countries in the world where the penalties for simple possession are extreme, not to mention the fact that you could easily be used as a political pawn." Just look at what happened to Nicki Minaj in Amsterdam.
There's a slightly different set of considerations for prescription cannabinoid drugs, Fox says, like Dronabinol (with prescription names like Marinol, Syndros, or Epidiolex). "If you've got an FDA-approved prescription drug, there is a process in place for being able to travel with those sorts of medications to different countries,&#; he says. &#;If you're going to do so, you really need to do your due diligence, make sure you check with the US Embassy in the place where you're traveling to, and be very certain about what the local and national laws are at your country of destination&#;not to mention what the US laws are, because there are some very specific laws regarding traveling with any controlled substances, even if they're prescription medications.&#;
Editor&#;s Note: Any cannabis products referenced above are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The writer is not a medical doctor, and their experience is based on personal use, the results of which may not be typical or intended. The legality of cannabis products varies by state, and readers are encouraged to check their local laws before purchasing and using cannabis products. Possessing, using, distributing, and/or selling marijuana or marijuana-based products is illegal under federal law as of the writing of this article, regardless of any conflicting state laws. Compliance with the laws of a particular state in no way ensures compliance with federal law, and there is a risk that conflicting federal and/or other state laws may be enforced in the future. Nothing in this article should be construed as advice regarding the legal status of cannabis products.
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