By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town

It’s usually not a good idea to whip out your medical marijuana while going through a Transportation Security Administration airport checkpoint, but sometimes, in some airports, in some medical marijuana states, it turns out OK.

Case in point: Mike Schaef of Tacoma, Washington, who operates North End Club 420, a medical marijuana patient collective garden.

When going through security at SeaTac airport just south of Seattle Friday morning at about 10:15, Mike put about two grams of cannabis in the scanner bowl in the TSA line.

“They grabbed it,” Mike’s friend Todd Dearinger told Toke of the Town. “After a few minutes with the feds and locals they gave him back his meds and let him go on his way.”

Schaef shared the photo on Facebook this morning, with the caption:

“This is what happens when u put your meds in the scanner bowl at seatac….they let me go and gave it back…said have a nice flight….”

Toke of the Town contacted SeaTac Airport Friday afternoon to ask about their policy regarding Washington medical marijuana patients boarding flights while possessing cannabis. “I don’t see a problem, as long as they have a doctor’s authorization,” SeaTac spokeswoman Charla Scaggs told us.

Scaggs promised to double-check on official airport policy and get back to us; we’re still awaiting that call.

One report from August 2010 indicated that medical marijuana is now allowed in airport terminals in Montana, which has since then seen its medical marijuana laws greatly reduced by a Republican-controlled Legislature, so all bets may be off there.

Canadian medical marijuana patients are allowed to vaporize cannabis in airports and aboard planes, according to a report from Cannabis Culture magazine in June.

Of course, if you’re in a state that doesn’t legally recognize the medicinal value of cannabis, you would be quite ill-advised indeed to display any marijuana in the security line.

ArticleAnd Image From Toke of the Town and republished with special permission.