Patient advocates in Massachusetts are celebrating an apparent Transportation and Security Administration policy change that may allow passengers to fly with medical marijuana.
The TSA quietly updated guidance on its website last month, adding the drug to the list of items that can be included in both carry-on and checked bags. The change came as new federal rules reclassifying medical marijuana as a Schedule III drug took effect nationally on April 28.
On the TSA’s “What Can I Bring?” tool — which provides guidance to travelers on whether certain items are allowed on board — a search query for “marijuana” now turns up results for “medical marijuana.”
The tool says, “yes,” the drug is allowed in both carry-ons and checked bags, pursuant to “special instructions” that have not yet been issued.
The administration hasn’t issued any guidance to travelers, and it remains unclear how the change will affect security operations at airports, if at all.
Jennifer Mehigan, a spokesperson for Massport, the quasi-public agency that runs Boston’s Logan Airport, said in a statement that the airport “encourages passengers to check with TSA for guidelines regarding what they can and cannot bring onboard” before arriving, but she did not elaborate on how the rule change might change the airport’s security operations.
Local TSA agents have not been briefed on the new policy, according to Mike Gazyagian, president of the union that represents New England’s TSA workers.
“This is the first I am hearing about the policy change,” he said in an email to GBH News.
Still, any change would be a departure from more than half a century of federal policy that made it technically illegal to bring medical marijuana on flights, even if the passenger had a valid prescription from a state, such as Massachusetts, where the drug had been legalized.
“We’re really lucky to have this moment in time where the federal government is recognizing medical marijuana as a medicine,” said Jeremiah MacKinnon, executive director of the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. “It gives us a little piece of mind that things are getting better and may continue to get better in terms of no longer being treated like a criminal.”
MacKinnon said the apparent TSA change may not necessarily change the everyday airport experience for most patients but it does send a message that medical marijuana use is okay.
“In my own view, TSA hasn’t really been looking for small amounts of marijuana for personal use at the airports for many years,” he said.
MacKinnon said many patients he knows have traveled with medical marijuana for a while with “no problem” at the airport.
“But there are others,” he added, “who were deathly afraid of bringing their cannabis with them because of the potential for legal repercussions if they were caught.”
According to the non-profit Medical Marijuana Policy Project, TSA agents have not actively searched for marijuana at U.S. airports for years. However, if agents encountered a substance that appeared to be marijuana during security screening, the matter would be referred to local law enforcement.
