Passenger Trains > Man ejected from Amtrak train for smoking pot

Man ejected from Amtrak train for smoking pot onboard

By Sue Suchyta For MediaNews Group (Michigan)
Nov 17, 2019

Smoking marijuana may be legal in Michigan, but smoking it onboard an Amtrak train is not, as a Chicago man who decided to light up a joint learned Nov. 9 while riding the rails to the Windy City.

Police officers responded to a summons from a conductor at the Amtrak station, 21201 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, who requested police remove the man from the train. The man, who did not speak much English, complied with the police officers, who then drove him to the Detroit bus station, where he purchased a bus ticket to Chicago to continue his journey.

http://www.pressandguide.com/news/police_fire/man-ejected-from-amtrak-train-for-smoking-pot-onboard/article_89b2bb5e-0720-11ea-9078-1b4753cc0159.html

Just speculation, but I wonder if the pothead gave the conductor some lip when told he had to put out his joint, but he decided against arguing with police.

They can throw you off the train for smoking a cigarette, and warn as much. "Zero tolerance".

Posted from Android

A Knucklehead...
 

bluesboyst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A Knucklehead...

Wouldn't that be a Harley-Davidson?

Hopefully they slowed the train down before thowing him off

If you have to pass a drug test I was told to get away from someone smoking pot or it could be enough to cause me to fail a test from 2nd hand pot smoke . The conductor can’t get away, kicked his butt off quick.

Nice of the Dearborn Police to operate a free taxi service. A lot of low-information pot smokers think "legalized possession" means "I can spark up anywhere I like." In most places that have decriminalized marijuana possession of "recreational amounts" it is still illegal to smoke it in public places. Doubly so on Amtrak where it violates the carrier's policies, which also apply to cigarettes and vaping.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

This kind of situation could be a good reason why Amtrak is seeking to codify its smoking ban rather than its bring a violation of Terms and Conditions...as it would thus become a crime. In the eyes of Michigan police, it was not a criminal matter, but civil.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/19 09:32 by GenePoon.

I kind of like the idea of pot smoking on Amtrak.  This old railfanning hippie loves getting stoned and watching trains.  Imagine sitting back in your roomette and watching the scenery slide by.  Mr Anderson could finally be satisfied that food service is the most profitable part of Amtrak.  Take one of those old Amtrak box cars full of Twinkies and attach it to the Empire Builder.  Man what a trip!

Good one.  Perhaps they could wrap the lounge car as a Twinkie. 

No need for this. One Twinkie may become desert in Flexible Dining meals. 

"Smoking" traditionally included cigars and pipes, but in the day and age of common sense no longer being common, pot (legal or not) and vaping is also prohibited and has to be explicitly stated so. 

A lot of low-information pot smokers think "legalized possession" means "I can spark up anywhere I like."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sounds like a trending camaraderie with the low information voting crowd.................................

I was on the Empire Builder several years ago.  I had my scanner with me.  The conductor had the engineer radio ahead to the next station and have the police meet the train.  There was a pot smoker in the Portland sleeper.  The police boarded, took the smoker off the train for questing.  They let him back on.  From what I heard, he probably flushed his stash when he saw .police boarding his car.  As the train departed, someone said on the radio, "I ain't strip-searching nobody."   I guess that the police said they couldn't do anything unless there was a strip search to find the weed.

John

I wonder if there isn't a common sense solution here.

In states or cities where pot smoking is legal, why couldn't those wanting to be lit do so during the (rare) smoke breaks along a route? Instead of smoking pot on board, which is against Amtrak rules no matter what you're smoking? I've seen pax on platform breaks sipping their cocktails/beer/wine. Why not smoking pot where doing so is legal by local standards?

If second hand smoke is an issue, perhaps identify a place for platform pot smokers to be segregated?

Smoking anything is prohibited on Amtrak trains. And on some platforms.

Weed is illegal under federal law.  As a federal entity, I don't see Amtrak allowing its use anywhere on its property.

You wanna get high while on Amtrak, eat an marajuana eatable. You still get your buzz and you don't get hassled.
Even a hard core stoner can figure this out!

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You wanna get high while on Amtrak, eat an
> marajuana eatable. You still get your buzz and you
> don't get hassled.
> Even a hard core stoner can figure this out!

Haha. Smoking pot is going to provoke complaints, because it smells like crap, literally. Don't know why people neglect this simple fact.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You wanna get high while on Amtrak, eat an
> marajuana eatable. You still get your buzz and you
> don't get hassled.
> Even a hard core stoner can figure this out!

That sounds like a reasonable solution, so long as you eat such a treat sparingly enough that you don't become a PITA to your fellow pax or staff.

Reminds me of late 1960's "Tea with Goldie" on the Smothers Brothers.