Can you get legal Pot as a Christmas gift?
Let’s say a friend or family member who lives in California gives you an ounce of marijuana for a holiday present.
It is legal there to buy weed and to give it as a gift, a fairly expensive one, by the way. Green Flower News says an ounce can cost anywhere from $160 to $350. Can you legally bring it back to South Carolina?
You didn’t actually buy it. In a word, no. South Carolina law says no matter how you obtain it, it is illegal to have any parts of a marijuana plant except mature stalks or plant fibers, marijuana oil or cakes made from the seeds, according to the Deaton law firm in North Charleston.
You also can’t have paraphernalia like pipes and roach clips. Ten states allow giving marijuana as a gift. In most states it’s limited to one ounce except in Michigan and Maine where it’s 2.5 ounces. South Carolina is not one that allows gifts.
The states that do have strict rules about gifting — the people have to know each other and no money can change hands. South Carolina is something of an outlier on relaxation of marijuana laws, which have steadily fallen away since Alaska allowed recreational use in 2014.
Legislators there approved medical marijuana use in 1998, two years after California allowed it. (California passed recreational use in 2016.)
In all, 25 states and Washington, D.C. allow recreational use — 40 states allow medical use.
The states that don’t are largely in the South and Midwest. A bill to make medical use legal in South Carolina passed the state Senate this year and is expected to be taken up again in the new year. There could be further complications of bringing marijuana into South Carolina from a state where it’s legal if you are flying.
TSA doesn’t screen for weed but if officers find it, they will call in law enforcement. Could be you and your gift pot end up missing a flight at least and at worst you could be charged with a crime because despite the trend in the states, marijuana is still a violation of federal law.
