December 09, 2004 | That Bud Ain't Da Bomb

An Arizona Public Regulation Commission member, E. Shirley Baca, known for promoting a zero tolerance drug policy in the PRC workplace was arrested for possession of marijuana Wednesday, after TSA screeners found less than an ounce of pot in her checked baggage, according to this story by Mary Perea of The Associated Press.

Now, there's certainly a whiff of hypocrisy in here, though the story doesn't say Baca was taking her pot to work with her.

But more interesting to me, is the fact that a TSA screener found this pot while searching for a bomb.

Here's another case (without even the hint of hypocrisy): John Perry Barlow, one of the founding fathers of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, got busted by the TSA for a relatively tiny amount of pot. He's fighting the legality of the search and running up against my old favorite: sensitive security information.

In Barlow's own words, from an interview with one of my favorite libertarians, Reason magazine's Brian Doherty.

One of the things going on in my mind when I wrote that note [announcing the decision to embrace political activism over lifestyle libertarianism] was that I’d just been busted for having a really trivial amount of marijuana in a checked bag under a PATRIOT Act search. I was arrested, hauled off in irons, an ugly experience. At San Francisco airport, for, like, three joints’ worth of dope.

Before the plane took off, Delta employees came on and said, Mr. Barlow, you have to step off the plane, and bring your personal effects. Then San Francisco cops arrested me. I spent the day in Redwood City in jail. It was a chilling experience. It’s happening, and happening a lot. The Transportation Security Administration is now routinely searching checked bags. They are not just looking for explosives. I’ve taken the government on, subpoenaing their training procedures and search requirements to see whether or not any attention is paid to the Fourth Amendment in these searches.

The Constitution doesn’t say anything about national security. The Fourth Amendment is the Fourth Amendment, and they’re gonna have to show me that it isn’t. Right now they are refusing to answer subpoenas. I’m trying to suppress evidence based on it being an improper search.

Most people in this situation just say whatever, and plead out, but I’m willing to put myself on the line for it. The worst that can happen is they’ll be especially nasty if they convict me. It’s a misdemeanor anyway. But to just plead out would be abdicating my citizen’s responsibility to defend the Constitution. You have to fight for your freedom individually and not say, "Oh well, it’s not worth the trouble."

I’m already being a lot pricklier than they expected. They asked for a continuation at the last hearing because they said that the Department of Homeland Security had been unable to come up with a set of guidelines regarding the release of the subpoenaed materials for national security reasons. So our national security depends on whether or not they can get me for carrying marijuana on that airplane.

The ideal thing would be to have charges dismissed with prejudice, and then I sue the shit out of them. I’m merely defending myself right now.

From my admittedly hearsay-based understanding, Barlow's stash was in his suitcase, inside a very small canister inside a dob kit.

Now if you are a TSA screener and open a suitcase and see an ounce of kind bud staring back at them, it's hard to argue that the screener should just ignore the contraband.

(Of course, the question of whether marijuana should be contraband is a whole other question -- the question of whether federal screeners on a flight within California who find the pot of a person with a medical card is an even more interesting and relevant question.)

But the S in TSA stands for security, not surveillance.

TSA screeners looking into baggage should be looking for one thing: any device that poses a threat when stored in the belly of an airplane.

It ain't their business to be looking for drugs of mass distraction or checking to make sure a vibrator is UL compliant.

Their business is to keep your plane from exploding in mid-air.

Look for a bomb, then pass that little suitcase along. In fact, if the TSA likes that slogan, they can have it.

I hereby waive any copyright or trademark or intellectual property rights I may have under the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Disney Copyright Litigation Act.

Posted by Ryan Singel at December 9, 2004 09:45 AM

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Tracked on December 9, 2004 11:50 AM