At Chicago Airport, there are these boxes for voluntary donations of marijuana to the police. And they are located AFTER the TSA screening line.
“These boxes belong to the Department of Aviation, but are serviced by the Chicago Police,” said police representative Maggie Huynh.
In general, they give passengers flying from Chicago the opportunity to dispose of marijuana before boarding the plane, as transporting it across state borders is illegal. Although marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, authorities claim they do not intend to arrest people found with it at Chicago airports. The TSA stated that if marijuana is found, they will refer the matter to the police. Chicago Police, while not recommending traveling with drugs (nicely said), states that they will not arrest a person if the amount they possess does not exceed the legal limit. They simply direct them to this box to voluntarily surrender what was found (what else to do with it, as carrying it on the plane is illegal by law)
So why use these specific boxes instead of, say, a regular trash bin? Because, as Huynh explained, only police have access to these boxes and can empty them — this helps prevent the marijuana or related products from falling into the “wrong hands.” And evidently, they must incinerate the waste somewhere…
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 