Nope, but nice try. The federal government regulates all airports, airlines and airspace, so state law becomes irrelevant once you arrive at the airport.
Attorney John J. Ghidini, who’s got his own law firm in Cheshire, explains that if you get caught at Bradley with a bowl, he’d be on the short list of people to call.
“Marijuana possession is illegal under federal law, and a person getting on a plane with some legally purchased medical buds would be subject to arrest if this person attempted to board an airplane,” Ghidini says. “In fact, a person boarding a plane in San Francisco, where marijuana is medically legal, could be arrested by the federal government, in the airport in California, and charged with possession of marijuana. The reason for this rests in the Constitution. This is where this debate becomes a question of federalism and state’s rights.”
Yikes. Good to know.
The battle for legalization has got to learn to walk before it can learn to run, and to get to a place where we can carry weed on an airplane legally, we’re going to need some serious momentum.
If legalized, how expensive would weed be for us folks who aren’t wealthy?
Right now, medical marijuana is legal and sold in dispensaries in California and Colorado. If pot were legalized, that’s probably the model that the marijuana market would continue to follow.
My West Coast sources tell me that it’s typical to buy legal buds these days for about $20 a gram, $60 an eighth and $300 an ounce. So … not much different than the current black-market prices.
Will the taxes eventually be exploited and raised, like, say, with cigarettes? Maybe. We do live in a greed-based, capitalist society so there’s no telling. But at least we would know that the proceeds will be going toward our societal needs and not to support a terrorist drug cartel. And your friendly neighborhood grower? He could go into business legally, so everybody wins.
Breathalyzers and sobriety tests can help prove drunk drivers, but besides sobriety tests, which smoking can either help or hurt, depending on the person, there is no legal way to tell who’s high. How do you make weed across-the-board legal when such scenarios present themselves in ways directly involving the safety of the public?
“Under current law, a breath test is not needed in order for an officer to believe that probable cause exists to arrest an individual for operating under the influence,” says Attorney John J. Ghidini. “The law only requires that the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person was under the influence at the time of operation. … Marijuana can linger in the blood for up to a month or more based on one use. Therefore, a positive urine or blood screen for marijuana simply establishes that the person was under the influence of marijuana at some point within the last month. That being said, the reality is that the smell of burnt marijuana, coupled red bloodshot eyes, failure of any standardized field sobriety test, plus a crash or some form of erratic driving would be sufficient probable cause for an officer to make an arrest on suspicion of operating under the influence. People are routinely charged with driving under the influence while high on crack, marijuana, prescription medications, cough syrup, so the framework exists to prosecute these types of offenses.”
Send your weedy questions to the weed man:
highconcept@newmassmedia.com
