{"id":237279,"date":"2026-05-19T21:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/237279\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:32:24","slug":"tsa-quietly-starts-letting-passengers-bring-weed-on-planes-with-a-catch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/237279\/","title":{"rendered":"TSA quietly starts letting passengers bring weed on planes \u2014 with a catch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The friendly skies just got a little friendlier.<\/p>\n

The Transportation Safety Administration updated its policy last month to allow medical marijuana<\/a> to be taken on commercial flights.<\/p>\n

The change is significant because although cannabis for medical use is now legal in 40 US states and the District of Columbia, it remains outlawed at the federal level, which has jurisdictional control over the nation\u2019s airports.<\/p>\n

It comes after the Trump administration signed an order reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug<\/a>, effectively acknowledging that it has known medicinal uses and allowing medical research at a federal level.<\/p>\n

\"AThe Travel Safety Administration now officially allows passengers to travel with medical marijuana in their carry-on or checked bags, but individual agents still have the final say whether items are allowed through security. AP<\/p>\n

Doctor-prescribed weed is now formally allowed on flights, both within customers\u2019 checked and carry-on baggage, according to the TSA website<\/a>, which says it\u2019s more concerned with thwarting potential safety threats than narcing on passengers\u2019 stashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSA\u2019s screening procedures are focused on security and are designed to detect potential threats to aviation and passengers,\u201d the policy revised April 27 spells out.<\/p>\n

\"PersonCannabis is now legal for medical use in 40 US states and the District of Columbia \u2014 and for recreational use in 24 states \u2014 however it\u2019s still federally illegal. eight8 \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, TSA security officers do not search for illegal drugs, but if any illegal substance or evidence of criminal activity is discovered during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency notes that the TSA officer on duty at the time has the final say over whether an item is allowed through the security checkpoint. <\/p>\n

Lawyers told SFGATE<\/a> that officers rarely prosecute travelers for bringing small amounts of cannabis on their flights, but bringing more than an ounce might be pushing it.<\/p>\n

Some passengers who really push the envelope could still wind up in cuffs, like a 23-year-old Texas stoner who was nabbed at Miami International Airport<\/a> in March with 75 pounds of the devil\u2019s lettuce in his luggage and hit with a trafficking charge.<\/p>\n

TSA did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The friendly skies just got a little friendlier. The Transportation Safety Administration updated its policy last month to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3346,6210,46682,9,11,10,3367,58],"class_list":["post-237279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-air-travel","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-tsa","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}