Got pot? Fly from Oakland
By Josh Richman
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 10/17/2009 02:30:48 PM PDT
Updated: 10/17/2009 02:30:55 PM PDT
Oakland International Airport may be the nation’s only airport with a specific policy letting users of medical marijuana travel with the drug.
The policy is spelled out in a three-page document quietly enacted last year by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. It states that if deputies determine someone is a qualified patient or primary caregiver as defined by California law and has eight ounces or less of the drug, he or she can keep it and board the plane.
Deputies warn the pot-carrying passengers that they may be committing a felony upon arrival when they set foot in a jurisdiction where medical marijuana is not recognized. But they say they don’t call ahead to alert authorities on the other end.
“We never have. We’re certainly within our right to, but we never have,” said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. “Our notification of the passengers is for their own safety and well-being.”
California voters approved medical marijuana use in 1996, while federal law still bans all possession and use.
But Oakland attorney Robert Raich notes the Code of Federal Regulations says a prohibition on operating a civil aircraft with knowledge that there is marijuana aboard doesn’t apply to carrying marijuana that’s “authorized by or under any Federal or State statute.”
The federal Transportation Security Administration does the screening and when marijuana — or any suspected contraband — is found, the
Advertisement
sheriff’s deputies are summoned.
Low profile
Oakland’s airport policy was enacted in February 2008, but Raich said he didn’t want to publicize it until recently lest the Bush administration change federal regulations, or lest it become an issue in Obama administration drug officials’ confirmation hearings.
“All other airports in medical cannabis states should have similar policies but they don’t,” he said, adding that he hears San Francisco International and Los Angeles International airports are relatively kind to medical marijuana users while airports in Burbank, Ontario and San Diego are not….
David Land
It is a nice change when I see the police act with logic and understanding. it dosent get enough media focus when it does happen.