We just passed through McCarran Airport and saw these big green mailbox-like receptacles with a big sign, “Dispose of Your Unwanted Drugs Here, Including Marijuana.” We assumed that they’re mostly a reminder to visitors who buy pot in Vegas that they can’t take it with them on the plane, or it’s still illegal where they’re flying to. But do people really use them? And what happens to the deposited pot?
Right. These so-called “amnesty boxes” are exactly what you say. If you're catching a flight out of McCarran and you're carrying marijuana left over from your stay, you can deposit it in one of a dozen green-metal containers that were installed last month at the airport. They’re bolted to the concrete in various places outside the terminals and car-rental center.
Pot possession, though legal (up to a certain amount) throughout Nevada, remains illegal at the airport. It’s also illegal to fly with it, either in carry-on or checked luggage (even if you're flying between states where it's legal).
We don’t know how many people have used them, but we assume they do, since the consequences of not using them can be … unpleasant, at the very least.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, if travelers are caught with weed at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, local police are summoned. If the amount is below the one-ounce limit for possession, no charges are pressed, though in the process, the travelers have probably missed their plane and they could be detained, since pot is illegal on airport property. If the amount is over the limit, the travelers can be arrested and charged with felony possession.
TSA officials, according to published reports, have admitted that searching for weed, especially where recreational cannabis is legal, isn't near the top of their priority list. A TSA spokesman told the New York Times last year that airport screeners and their dogs are looking for guns or explosives, not marijuana.
Statistics tend to prove this out. Airport authorities in Denver, for one example, stopped only 29 passengers for marijuana possession in 2015, according to the Times. More than 54 million travelers passed through the airport that year. Also, all 29 had a legal amount of weed and were asked to throw it away or dispose of it via other means if they wanted to keep it.
A Las Vegas police officer said no citations have been issued stemming from the airport’s ban on marijuana possession and advertising, passed in September.
After recreational marijuana became legal in California on January 1, airport police at LAX told USA Today that people stopped by the TSA with a legal amount of pot won’t be charged, even if they’re summoned by TSA, “because it is not a crime.”
What happens to the stash that you dump in a green box is a little vague; an airport spokeswoman says, "Amnesty boxes are managed by contractors hired by the airport that have the expertise to dispose of these substances appropriately."
The contractor empties the boxes multiple times per week, which suggests that people are using them; the airport spokeswoman says that the schedule will be adjusted “as usage patterns develop.”
