Traveler Steals Cannabis From Midway Airport ‘Amnesty Box’

Someone stole from Chicago’s Midway Airport’s cannabis amnesty box. According to NBC 5 Chicago, a traveler arriving in the city around 6 p.m. grabbed the box’s contents and ran away.

The box reportedly contained only cannabis found on a traveler on Wednesday. The individual was escorted to the amnesty box and was allowed to deposit the product without penalty but when police went to empty the box that evening, it was empty.

Security cameras showed a man opening the box – which is positioned near security checkpoints – and grabbing its contents; it’s unclear why the box was not locked, per policy. Police are looking for the individual.

The so-called amnesty boxes were set up in both O’Hare and Midway earlier this month after cannabis legalization took effect in Illinois.

Other airports in states where cannabis is legalized have also set up the amnesty boxes, but this is the first reported theft from one of the boxes where they have been installed. After the bins were set up in Toronto, Canada’s Pearson International Airport, social media users called them “free weed bins” – which rings true in this case – but airport officials called that description “resoundingly incorrect.”

Despite cannabis’ legal status in Illinois, it remains federally outlawed, which is why it is barred from airplanes. Local airports have their own policies – California’s LAX permits cannabis on airport property but not past TSA checkpoints.

Last year the TSA said some cannabis products – including hemp-derived CBD and cannabis-derived pharmaceutical Epidiolex – would be allowed onboard airplanes in checked luggage. The agency’s policies don’t direct its agents to search for cannabis or other illegal drugs but to “refer the matter to law enforcement” regardless of the policies of the airport’s home state.