WISH TV: Police take medical marijuana from Calif. cancer patient

Another aviation disaster averted by TSA's thugs ...

WISH TV: Police take medical marijuana from Calif. cancer patient

Undoubtedly Blogdad Bob will be bragging about their latest drug arrest.

 

We really need a "dislike this" button.

 

another person's medical care going up in smoke..

 

OK, this person traveled to a state without MM laws. I think they are taking a risk in doing so.

TSA finds the MM, even while it is not their job, and reports to police. I would say the police have little choice to not do something at that point. From the information available it seems the police only confiscated the contraband and ended it there.

All in all I think that was a reasonable outcome for a person willing to challenge local law.

 

Was she challenging a local law, or just traveling with her prescribed meds? The "full faith & credit" clause of the Constitution would suggest that she should be allowed to travel with her prescribed meds. The same applies to gun owners who find themselves at EWR/JFK/LGA with their firearms: The gun owners are in the right, although the guns often have to be pried out of the grubby hands of the local police.

Obviously the courts needs to do some more work to put some muscle into this.

 

I understand your point but... marijuana is not legal anywhere in the United States under federal law. So even if some states have determined differently I don't think a person has any protection after they leave such a state. I think the local LEO's handled this situation at as low a level as was possible. The only penalty that I can see was loss of the MM and the pipe. All things considered not a real bad outcome. Heck the cop might have not even made a report and scored a roach for themselves.

I am not supporting what TSA did but trying to take a larger view and can see how this could have ended up much worse than it did.

As a matter of fact I suggested on another site that anything TSA finds and turns over to police should be excluded as evidence for prosecution. TSA can't be used as a go around of the 4th.

 

Ostensibly, no, it wouldn't. That also doesn't mean TSA has, or should have, the authority to do anything about it. Their stated mission is to keep dangerous items off of airplanes. Unless it's the pilot who's smoking the MM, it's one (expletive deleted) of a stretch to see it as being dangerous to the plane.

 

Which leads one to wonder exactly why they're counting cash, leafing through receipts, and demanding that children speak their name and destination to make sure they haven't been kidnapped, among other searches well outside the scope of "administrative."

 

Because they're drunk on the idea of power. TSA smurf-clerks have no authority other than to say "you may not enter the 'sterile' (but not really guys, but don't tell anyone that we're incompetent and utterly incapable of actually securing anything) area of the airport, try again tomorrow," so they make up as many bogus procedures as they can to make themselves feel important, feel powerful, or feel a little bit closer to human.

Trying to "make sure kids haven't been kidnapped" is an easy way to appeal to the "think of the children!" knee-jerk response in people, so they play that angle because they think it's tough to argue with. Same with searching for drugs, though it seems that as generations go on, that one's getting tougher and tougher to prop up.

The whole thing is really an exercise in trying to exploit emotional responses to short-circuit logic and reason in the minds of the people. It's why you hear so many "Nine eleven, that's why" arguments from TSA apologists or just plain morons (but alas, I repeat myself) on news articles. People want to feel safe and damn everything else if they get that feeling. Don't even have to be safe, just feel that way. TSA in its early days as an irrelevant and ineffectual waste of our tax dollars was good at that. The government was Doing Something (TM) and people thought "better this than another Nine Eleven." Now, though, more and more people are seeing that TSA itself is the threat, not the imaginary terrorists that it thinks it's stopping at airport checkpoints. And it's not a threat to our lives; no, it's much worse than that - it's a threat to our liberty. And folks are finally starting to come around and see that there are more important things than statistics of lives saved vs. lives lost, like how those lives are lived - in freedom or in fear.

 

Exactly where in the Constitution is the power to regulate drugs given to the federal government?

Remember, if a power is not specifically given to the federal government then that power is reserved to the States or the people.

 

If it isn't within the realm of your responsibility, then why are you obligated to report it? This seems like mission creep to me. If TSA is supposed to be charged with screening for WEI, what's the sense in involving drugs (and thus effectively, even if not officially, expanding the scope from WEI to WEID) if those drugs do not pose a security risk?

If the government is worried about drugs on planes, then why not leave that to DEA personnel? TSA is, we're told, trained in detecting items that can potentially bring down an airplane. I doubt even the worst case of 'roid rage or PCP rage would enable someone to tear through an aircraft fuselage or break into a properly-locked cockpit, and even if they do have increased physical strength it's unlikely they'll be able to fight off an entire planeload of passengers committed to bringing their rampage to a halt.

Don't get me wrong, I never stood any risk from this myself as I don't use illegal drugs (my rant about pseudoephedrine and the alienation of sinus sufferers is another topic for another time) but if scope creep can move in the direction of drugs, it can move in a whole lot of other directions as well.

 

Was not responsive to the question.

 

And if a TSO sexually assaults you at a checkpoint as part of their grope session are they liable for being arrested, strip searched by an actual law inforcement officer prior to incarceration, and held until the judge sets bail?

 

When I feel like killing some time at the checkpoint I might try this, and I encourage others to do the same -

Go to the Dollar store and buy a container of oregano, then pour some into a Kippie bag that gets tucked in a pocket somewhere in your rollaboard. When a screener thinks they made Big Catch™ after rifling through your stuff, the LEO that they summoned will give them a major for wasting their time.

 

Take a look at marjoram! Boy that stuff looks suspicious.

Last flight I took I was bringing along some nettles for tea. I wrote "nettles" on the baggie, but I should have just left it. It looks pretty pot-like, too. That might be a good way to smuggle pot, actually -- bring a bunch of different pungent herbs in your checked bag along in separate baggies, all marked with what they are. Then, mark the pot as "marjoram".

 

Not a word in there about counting cash, leafing through receipts, or identifying potentially kidnapped children.

Not one. But that's about par for the course - post irrelevant links without bothering to put forth an actual answer to a question.

Must be Secret Squirrel Inanity.

 

Yeah, it's funny when somebody arrives on the scene with such bravado, and then irrelevant pasted links is all they have to offer.

 

That's three red herrings in a row. I've never played baseball with red herring before. At what point are you "out"?

Meanwhile, when I get home from work tonight, I'll pop another beer & toss out some nets. It's looking like the fishing will be good.

 

We don't come here for reading assignments, Ron. If you want to make a point, make it succinctly and precisely. I do hope "succinct" is in your active vocabulary.

 

Ron, here is a clue for you. We don't click on the links you provide either. You have a history with most of us from 'the other place' and we regard you as an insignificant annoyance, not a person who is either likeable or informative. You could say the sky is blue and that water is wet. Many over here would check it out because they doubt your veracity.