High Country Caregiver

Flying with Marijuana

Thinking of flying with some marijuana for the holidays?  The holidays are not supposed to be a venture into sobriety and bringing some cannabis with you on the airplane to your holidaze destination is no different than binging the mistletoe along if you have the medical marijuana card to protect you.

For over ten years, doctors have been providing a buffer zone  between patients and law enforcement.  Traveling on an airplane is stressful, going through security, finding your gate, being on time, and cannabis is one of those little human helpers that makes traveling all the less painful and easy.  Where do you put your stash though when you’re getting ready to board a plane?  From personal experience I have always put my herb, lighter, and pipe in carry on, and never had a problem.  One time, a TSA security guard did say “normally I would say something about what’s in here, but it smells really good, so go on your way!”  That experience was a fun one and in Denver at DIA.

Most recently over the holidaze I brought cannabis with me to my Arizona destination in carry on, and had no problem.  On the way home, I had about 2 grams of herb and a gram of hash left, and decided to check my bad with the cannabis in a jar in the bag.  As soon as I passed through security I heard an intercom page that I should pick up a courtesy phone.  Before I could contact the operator on the phone, I was met by TSA security and Tucson, AZ City Police looking for me.  They had my cannabis and pipe in a garbage bag in hand.  I presented the authorities with my expired Colorado medical marijuana card which I need to renew, and they seemed relieved to see that.  They had a brief ten second discussion amongst themselves, and the youngest officer gave me back my medical marijuana and red card and told me to put it in my carry on.  He also asked if he could take a picture of my card and said he wanted to “show the guys” that he had a medical marijuana encounter.  Overall they were very easy going and seemed relieved that I had my card and they didn’t have to bust me over Christmas.

The moral of the story is that it is OK to travel out of State to and from other medical marijuana states with cannabis if you have any kind of proof that you are a medical marijuana patient.  The experience was a bit unnerving for a second, but getting my stash back, with a ” sorry to bother you”, I couldn’t ask for anything more!  It’s great being a cannabis patient and knowing that you can travel with marijuana.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 9:50 am. It is filed under Caregiver & Patient, CO MMj Details, Colorado Marijuana Laws and tagged with 420, airport, arizona, blunts, cannabis, colorado, contact, expired, flying, marijuana, medical, mmj, pipe, police, pot, renew, security, smoking, traveling, TSA, using, weed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.