Medical Marijuana incident

[terrylowe]

I researched this a little bit and found one article, 25 years old, in which CG tried unsuccessfully to seize a boat for small amount of marijuana. Another incident in the same article said it happened again and it was a 1500 fine.

Also read an article where the Time Bandit was raided by the CG and they found a small amount of cannabis and meth. Arrest was made but no seizure, no loss of captains license.

I wonder if you and I read the same 25-year-old article? The gist of the article is that the Coast Guard "Zero Tolerance" rule was going a bit overboard because mega-million dollar yachts were getting seized for minuscule amounts of MJ.

``We don`t want to clog up the system with cases that are marginal,`` Simpson said. ``We want to allow some judgment to be made. We want to get the program away from seizing a boat with one seed or two seeds.``The Coast Guard began enforcing zero tolerance on April 11 and since that time has seized 37 vessels nationwide. Customs carries out forfeiture procedings for the Coast Guard and Customs."

Those 37 vessels were seized in about one month period of time, so boat seizures have happened and I am guessing that it happened a lot. I have NO idea if the Coast Guard is still enforcing their zero tolerance rules. But why in the world would someone who makes their income running a boat take any kind of risk by allowing drugs on their vessel?

The financial ramifications to the boat captain can be tremendous. Even a misdemeanor arrest can be expensive with legal fees and fines. He would have to hire legal council to help get his seized property back. He loses income from lost charters while customs holds his boat. Even if customs released his vessel after a few weeks, he would have a damaged reputation and could suffer further financial consequences as he loses future charters. Let's say the captain doesn't get his boat impounded but only gets fined. Will his customer that brought the MJ illegally aboard his boat step up and pay the fine?

'Zero Tolerance' : Many in the boating community believe the Coast Guard has gone overboard by seizing craft when tiny amounts of drugs are found aboard. - Los Angeles Times

 

[Shasta_man]

<<The impairment argument is simply wrong. Motor skills don't diminish with cannabis like with alcohol.>> Quintuple BS. I hope you don't believe that. Certainly, alcohol affects them more (potentially much more) and for longer, but it's certainly affecting your motor skills and that effect is one of the reasons why people do it. You are not sharper on it and you don't drive better on it. Those are things you think when you are younger until getting older and realizing that's not true. And yes, I have adequate experience to speak from. While many people think that because they haven't been in trouble over it and gee seems like everybody is doing it, that it has become some gray area or off the radar now (like a lot of laws now), it's not gray where Wookie is. Realizing that the slightest hint of it on the boat is bad, gives me a new perspective on that. However, taking an illegal substance through precisely the place that searches you (the airport) always failed the "worth it" challenge.

 

[Barrod]

I wonder if you and I read the same 25-year-old article?.

You quoted an earlier post - I actually did read a different article than you ---


Also wanted to say that I never said that OP should allow anything on his boat. I believe and said he was right about it, for sure, just really I question his decision on how to deal with it in the zero tolerance fashion that he describes as if he were in fact, the CG himself. I believe that when OP is presented with the situation he describes, he'll throw it overboard, revoke the customers privilege to dive. Take them to dock and have a nice day. After that I'd check around to make sure he didn't drop a seed - that's what I'd do.

Who wants to ruin EVERYONES day, including your 5 other customers when you call the fuzz and hog tie one of your divers in the head because you saw a roach fall out of some divers goggle case?

 

[scubafanatic]

If I'm not mistaken, hasn't SPREE been upgraded, at substantial expense, to undertake longer range itineraries, to numerous foreign ports of call ? What would be the attitude of the relevant foreign countries towards this ?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

You quoted an earlier post - I actually did read a different article than you ---


Also wanted to say that I never said that OP should allow anything on his boat. I believe and said he was right about it, for sure, just really I question his decision on how to deal with it in the zero tolerance fashion that he describes as if he were in fact, the CG himself. I believe that when OP is presented with the situation he describes, he'll throw it overboard, revoke the customers privilege to dive. Take them to dock and have a nice day. After that I'd check around to make sure he didn't drop a seed - that's what I'd do.

Who wants to ruin EVERYONES day, including your 5 other customers when you call the fuzz and hog tie one of your divers in the head because you saw a roach fall out of some divers goggle case?

A captain/owner is free to deal with those who would disobey his rules as he sees fit to the degree the law allows. Personally I would be fine with his approach as it insures I am going to have a good trip without fear of problems mid-voyage.
I am all for medical marijuana where it is legal. My daughter would likely benefit greatly from some form of it and hope ohio where she lives passes the bill pending now to allow it.
In PA even our coward governor has come out in favor of it. Until such time as it is though it is still illegal. Show up for one of my classes and be in posession- I will call the cops. I don't want someone with such poor judgment and disregard for me and my rules with my name on their c card.
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[LadyWithFins]

On a slightly different note, I would like to get your opinion on diving culture and pot smoking. I have experimented in my life and believe that we should take responsibility for own lives and 'let god judge others' however, I have an extensive background in sales and marketing and seriously thinking about developing a dive business to tide me over to retirement. I'm very clear about the earning potential, but my concern is entering a culture of excessive drug and alcohol abuse which have seen in many dive locations by folks in the industry. Perhaps I've been hanging out with a certain crowd but this part of the industry is not what I want for my life. I don't smoke (anything) and drink socially. I enjoy the natural high of being in nature and would like to build a business turning other people onto the beauties of the underworld - and not get stoned as soon as I'm out of the water. Any recommendations on where to invest my time in IDC training and specific locations which are about a natural high? Agsin , this is not intended as a criticism, but really a lifestyle choice.

 

[kelemvor]

Also, vaping is such a blessing! Odor free, residue free, atypical appearance. You or the CG and their dogs would never find a vape pen in a dive bag, no way.

Either you really have no idea what you're talking about or you were just being sarcastic. I can't quite tell.

Please elaborate on why you think I don't know what I'm talking about?

Because I have seen people use them. The odor is slightly different. The odor is also extremely strong and there's no mistaking it. I'll give you atypical appearance.

Then you congratulate Wookie on wanting to arrest and call the CG on his own customers rather than just throw the stash overboard like a reasonable human being because - wait for it - THERES NO PROFIT IN IT? What a 1st degree (avoiding mods banhammer) you are.

I congratulated him on making a smart business decision. I think posting about it on this forum is odd, but unless someone's paying him enough to make the risk worthwhile...

Also, I do believe he specifically mentioned two incidents where he did not arrest the person. In one of the incidents it was scattered to the winds and the other the person was allowed to smoke it up.

 

[AngloFish]

The average human has around 5million scent receptors. A blood hound for example has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300 million. If you think a trained dog will not pick up on the THC residue deposited on the outside of your vap after handling some juicy buds you're crazy. I've been a volunteer "cadaver" for a search and rescue agency for the past 9 years. Now granted I'm working with puppies that are being trained for certification but even these untrained puppies can find me from a boat, 20-25ft down, in current.. It's really amazing to see and also give you a whole new appreciation of just how sensitive their sense of smell is.

You or the CG and their dogs would never find a vape pen in a dive bag, no way.

 

[AlexL]

Because I have seen people use them. The odor is slightly different. The odor is also extremely strong and there's no mistaking it. I'll give you atypical appearance.

Barrod is talking about a THC laced e-cig, not a portable vaporiser that kelemvor is talking about, like the ioLite or PAX. the former cannot eaisily be differentiated from a 'normal' e-cig with only nitconine infused gycol solution; not sure if a dog would alert on it... not something id want to bet on. the latter, on the other hand, will have a noticable smell, and any k-9 would make a beeline right for it.

[edit] anyone who attempts to cross state and/or national borders with identifiable plant matter is a complete idiot.

 

[mdax]

I'm not sure why the thread was posted in the first place, there was no "incident". It was a civil conversation between two rational people with a positive outcome.