The Port Authority Police Department covers some of the most high-volume bus terminals, airports, train stations, tunnels, and bridges in the world. PAPD officers are tasked with enforcing the local laws on either side of the Hudson.

Joseph Pentangelo, the PAPD spokesman and a former beat cop, said PAPD officers issue a court summons instead of handcuffs for small amounts of cannabis on the New York side, per local laws.*

But New Jersey’s criminal prohibition for any amount of marijuana remains firmly in place and PAPD officers act accordingly by performing a custodial arrest.

Feiner was shown to a small cell, searched again and her bra was confiscated.

Then they took away her glasses.

“It was the worst indignity,” said Feiner, who has worn glasses since first grade.

After nearly two hours, there was a shift change and a new lieutenant called the Essex County prosecutor. After the brief phone conversation, Feiner was told that she was being released.

“A non-New Jersey resident who is travelling in New Jersey with medical marijuana can be charged,” said Katherine Carter,a spokeswoman at the prosecutor’s office. “However these decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and are based on the amount [of marijuana] involved and if the person has documentation from the state they are travelling from.”

Both Carter and Pentangelo said this was the first time a cannabis patient registered in another state had been detained at Newark Liberty Airport.

It probably won’t be the last. Forms of medical cannabis are legally distributed in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut. By the end of next year, Pennsylvania and Maryland expect to register patients. Despite their close proximity, none of those states offer patient reciprocity. Michigan alone has more than 200,000 card-carrying cannabis patients. Nationwide, estimates project about 2 million.

Feiner was given back her glasses, jewelry, phone, carry on bag, and purse. But her problems weren’t over yet.

First she had to make her way back to the terminal, then it took an hour to locate her checked bag. Oddly, the suitcase had made it to Portland already…on her original flight.

United Airlines ticketing agents and a customer service supervisor quickly got her booked on a red-eye to Portland that left just after midnight, free of charge.

Back in Maine and sitting in sandals by a pristine lake a few days later, Feiner laughed off most of the encounter. She was still shocked that it happened at all. Wondering aloud, she hoped there wouldn’t be any future problems with TSA, especially during some upcoming international flights.

In hindsight, Feiner realized how carefully she had had to navigate the encounter with PAPD.

“Where do I stop being so cooperative? There’s really a line, and if you go over it, they are definitely going to be mean,” said Feiner, “But if you don’t insist on your rights, they will use everything against you.”

The TSA travel ban on medical marijuana is a massive hardship for the millions of registered patients. And lack of recognition between the quickly expanding state programs is a cold insult to basic civil rights.

No one should have to endure discrimination that is government approved.

*A law passed in 1979 decriminalized marijuana possession in the state of New York, except when in “public view.” In the 1990s, Mayor Rudy Giuliani used that loophole to crack down on the Big Apple’s cannabis consumers. Giuliani’s term saw cannabis arrests go from less than 5,000 per year to more than 50,000.

In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he was going to reduce marijuana arrests and instructed the NYPD to start issuing citations. The same year, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced that he would dismiss all marijuana possession cases before arraignment, an estimated 8,500 per year for his office. By 2016, NYPD marijuana arrests were cut in half, but still totaled a staggering 18,136 in a single year — more than the entire state of Pennsylvania.