What you need to know if you’re flying with cannabis starting Wednesday

RICHMOND (NEWS 1130) — Vancouver International Airport Leave says to leave your cannabis at home if you’re traveling internationally and know the rules of which province you’re flying to.

Robyn McVicker, vice-president of operations and maintenance with the Vancouver Airport Authority, says it’s up to the RCMP to enforce the rules of how much cannabis you can have in Canada, and the Canadian Air Transportation Safety Authority wont be be checking for recreational pot.

“You can take up to 30g in your possession, if you’re 19 or older, but from a CATSA perspective, CATSA is not checking for drugs,” McVicker says. “Keep in mind that if you’re crossing international boundaries, it does not matter because you will not be allowed into the country with cannabis in your possession.”

You won’t be able to smoke or vape inside the terminal either, only in designated smoking zones, and there will be no sales of cannabis at the airport.

No crossing the U.S. border with weed

Customs and Border Protection officials are serving notice that the possession of cannabis is against federal U.S. law, and that their policies and procedures won’t change just because it’s legal in Canada.

Executive assistant commissioner Todd Owen says border officers will have “broad latitude” to determine whether someone who admits to using marijuana should be deemed inadmissible to the United States.

He says the American laws, policies and procedures that exist today will still be in place Wednesday after Canada’s legalization measures formally take effect.

Owen says a person’s admissibility depends on an array of factors, including whether a border guard has reason to believe that someone who consumes pot in Canada has plans to do so upon entering the U.S.

Officials also say that because a legal amnesty granted in Canada doesn’t apply in the U.S., someone who was pardoned of a previous pot conviction north of the border won’t be able to enter the country simply because it’s been legalized.

For more information visit the YVR’s cannabis site.

with files from The Canadian Press

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