TSA officials have made it clear that sniffing out your eighth of weed or your package of edibles isn’t their top priority: Their concern is flight safety, not the enforcement of our nation’s drug laws.
“Let us be blunt: TSA officers DO NOT search for marijuana or other illegal drugs,” the agency quipped on its Instagram page in 2019.
Since TSA cannot make arrests themselves, if a TSA agent stumbles upon marijuana in your bags, federal policy technically requires them to notify local law enforcement. In a prohibition state like Texas or Idaho, you may be in real trouble. But if you are in a legal state like Colorado, TSA agents may turn a blind eye to your bud (if you’re within that state’s legal possession limits).
In many cases, law enforcement’s decision to bust you or not—and to let you keep your weed or not—is downright arbitrary.