Had to do a "Double Read" - Pot Smokers Flying High From Oakland

[IE420Patient]

Wow! This means when I am in SF in December I can stock up and bring back home to So-Cal HLT Brownies from Harborside Health Center in Oakland.

Pot Smokers Flying High From Oakland (http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/dpgo_Pot_Smokers_Flying_High_From_Oakland_mb_20091 019_4116982)

Updated: Tuesday, 20 Oct 2009, 8:00 AM PDT
Published : Monday, 19 Oct 2009, 9:36 AM PDT

By MIKE BRODY

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Medical marijuana patients boarding flights out of Oakland International Airport are allowed to take up to 8 ounces of pot onboard, the San Jose Mercury News reports .

The policy enacted last year by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office states that if someone is a qualified patient or primary caregiver as defined by California law, they are allowed to carry 8 ounces or less of the drug onto the plane. There is a risk, however.

Pot-carrying passengers may be charged with a felony when they arrive at their destination if it is a place where medical marijuana is not recognized.

The California sheriffs say they won't try to get the medical marijuana users busted by alerting other authorities.

"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."

On Monday, it was announced that the Obama administration would direct federal drug agents not to pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana.

The new policy is a significant departure from the administration of former President George W. Bush, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Thirteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Arizona and Maryland have passed laws that, although favorable towards medical marijuana, did not legalize its use.

[Chef]

Well, that seems like great news. Now let's see how they enforce that policy.

[Chubbs]

I fly into/out of Oak. airport a few times a year.

I will personally testing this new rule later this year and will be sure to let everyone know how it works out.

--Chubbs

[IE420Patient]

I fly into/out of Oak. airport a few times a year.

I will personally testing this new rule later this year and will be sure to let everyone know how it works out.

--Chubbs

What airport do you fly out of? I use Ontario and they are a "no go" ... it might only work between Oakland and LAX. Here's more info. from another link - take note of the BOLD section. When I looked a bit further, I won't chance it going in/out of Ontario, Burbank, and San Diego.

Got pot? Fly from Oakland (http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13579137?source=most_viewed)

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 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.

Raich, who has seen two of his medical marijuana cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has taught Oakland Police cadets about medical marijuana issues, said medical marijuana users generally didn't have much trouble when Oakland Police used to patrol inside the airport terminals. But that changed when the Alameda County Sheriff's Office took over in mid-2007. That summer TSA screeners referred to deputies a traveling medical-marijuana user from Washington state.

"The sheriff's deputies so harassed this person, it was heart-wrenching," Raich said. "They took his medicine, they broke his bong, they took his edibles. They were threatening him."

'Pinball machine'

Raich said he found that the sheriff's office was unwilling to change its policy. So he consulted various officials including those at the Port of Oakland, which owns and operates the airport.
"I felt like a ball in a pinball machine," he said. "I felt like I'd talked to every single employee at the port and they all seemed sympathetic but they all told me the same thing: 'That's not our policy "... that's the sheriff doing that on his own.' "

Raich eventually went to the Alameda County counsel's office.
That office "finally told (Sheriff Greg Ahern) he had to comply with California law whether he liked it or not, and only then did he adopt a policy," Raich said.

"Greg Ahern is out of touch with the people of California who voted for Prop. 215 and medical cannabis in 1996 and have continued to support it by wide margins ever since," Raich said. Sheriff's spokesman Nelson said the sheriff "neither supports nor opposes the medical marijuana law.
"He's had no position on that," Nelson said. "He's just trying to do the best he can when a state law conflicts with a federal law."