Thanks to Oregon’s marijuana legalization law that went into effect last week, pot-possessing passengers traveling through Portland International Airport won’t run into any police problems, as long as their flight stays within the state and they don’t toke up while up in the air.

“If their ticket shows that they’re traveling within the state and they have the legal allowance of marijuana, then they’re free to travel with that,” Steve Johnson, media relations manager for the Port of Portland, told local NBC affiliate KGW-TV.

There are five other airports in the state that adults over 21 can fly to while carrying an ounce of less of cannabis. But flying out of state, even to another legalized jurisdiction like neighboring Washington State, is discouraged. And smoking while on an airplane remains prohibited.

“The Port Police may be called in by the TSA on a report of marijuana at the checkpoint,” says the website for the Port of Portland, which oversees the airport. “The Port Police would then determine whether the traveler’s possession of marijuana is legal.”

Johnson said that although the TSA is a federal agency, they don’t enforce federal marijuana laws. “The TSA, for example, is really designed to look for safety and security issues. So that’s their focus.”

Even if a passenger with an out-of-state destination is found with marijuana, they won’t be arrested. Instead, Johnson says, they’ll be asked to “go back outside the security checkpoint and store that recreational marijuana in a safe place.”

If a passenger refuses to ditch the weed, they’ll still be allowed on the plane, but PDX authorities will contact officials at the destination airport to inform them of the inbound marijuana, according to KGW’s Chris Willis.

The policy is much more relaxed than the one at Denver International Airport in Colorado, which <a target="_self" rel="nofollow" …read more

Source:: Weed Feed