Going on a cruise is intended to be a break from reality, and a place where you vacation your way, whether that means being active and going on excursions in foreign destinations or sleeping in and relaxing on the deck. However, one individual recently received a lifetime ban for attempting to bring CBD gummies on board.

According to Local10 News, Texan Melinda Van Veldhuizen has gone on many cruises in the past—and the frequency has earned her priority boarding.

Her most recent trip was meant to celebrate her 21st wedding anniversary with her husband, as well as her son’s senior year of high school by traveling to Aruba, Curaçao, and the Dominican Republic. During boarding on the Carnival Cruise Ship Horizon at the Port of Miami, Florida, which was set to visit she was pulled aside when a security officer found CBD gummies in her bag. “I have trouble sleeping, so it was just to make sure I could sleep on the trip—so if there were any issues, I could sleep,” Van Veldhuizen said. “I’ve always traveled with them, no problem.”

Van Veldhuizen explained that she was taken away from her family to a separate area where was interrogated by both ship security and law enforcement. “I sat there for two-and-a-half hours, really not sure what was going to happen,” she said. “The way that they treated me was like a criminal.”

At first she thought it was a mistake for something else often prohibited on the ship when boarding. “I thought it was one of those situations where you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, I left a bottle of water in my backpack; you gotta throw it away,’ kind of thing like that happens at TSA,” she said.

CBD has been legal in the U.S. since the 2018 Farm Bill was passed, and can be sold in any state as long as it contains 0.3% THC or less. Van Veldhuizen’s CBD gummies contained 0.01% THC.

The problem lies with the cruise line—in fact all major cruise lines—which do not permit CBD on board due to federal restrictions. 

According to Van Veldhuizen, even the captain questioned her during the incident. “The captain asked me several times if I had a marijuana card or if I had a diagnosis, if I needed it,” she said. “I said, ‘It’s CBD; that doesn’t exist. It’s just not a thing.’”

She and her family did not continue their vacation and were sent a letter from Carnival on Aug. 5 stating that Van Veldhuizen was banned from ever cruising with Carnival in the future. “This decision was based on your actions on the current cruise, which were a violation of the ship rules, interfered with the safety and/or enjoyment of other guests on the ship or caused harm to Carnival,” the letter stated, which was signed by Horizon Captain Rocco Lubrano and two witnesses. “Your attempt to book a future cruise will result in cancellation and a possible loss of deposit monies.”

Local10 News shared a statement obtained from Carnival regarding the incident. “We are very sorry this guest and her family are unhappy with the outcome of their vacation plans, but we are following federal law under which CBD is defined as a controlled substance,” the statement said. “We are not here to ascertain where our guests purchase CBD or what they intend to use it for once on board. Our responsibility is to follow federal guidelines and stop prohibited items from being brought on board our ships.”

Carnival Cruise Line does state that cannabis and CBD are clearly prohibited on its website. “Any illegal narcotics/drugs including synthetic, designer drugs, Cannabidiol (CBD) and medical marijuana. While certain CBD products used for medicinal purposes may be legal in the US, they are not legal in all the ports we visit and therefore are also considered prohibited items,” the cruise line states.

The cruise line also did not refund Van Veldhuizen for the cost of the trip, which included $5,586 and an additional $700 that was charged to her credit card after the ship left the port. According to a report by The Washington Post, the cruise line eventually offered to reimburse her for $1,665 of the trip cost. So Van Veldhuizen hired an attorney both to get her full fare refunded, and also to get her ban lifted.

Attorney Daren Stabinski, a Florida-based attorney representing Van Veldhuizen, explained that while the ship has its rules, the case was “specifically outrageous.” “We believe it was false imprisonment what they did to her. They had no right to hold her, especially when she did nothing wrong in the first place,” Stabinski said. “CBD is not marijuana. When you look at the specific rules and conditions that you agree to when you sail, it specifically says marijuana, marijuana derivatives and all illegally-controlled substances are prohibited, and what my client had was none of those things.”

Royal Caribbean cruise line, which owns some of the largest ships in the world, notes in its FAQ that “illegal drugs & substances” and “CBD oil/CBD products” are prohibited from being brought on board.

Disney Cruise Line shows “marijuana and illicit drug policy” on its restricted item list as well. “Additionally, all drug paraphernalia used for marijuana, cannabis and hemp is prohibited. Medically prescribed marijuana, as well as items derived from or enriched by marijuana, including items and products that contain THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and or CBD (Cannabidiol) are also prohibited.”

Likewise, Norwegian Cruise Line also prohibits cannabis and CBD in any form.

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“You know who lives there?” Charlie, the man driving our boat, asks me as I jump into the deep blue water of Lake Coatepeque in northwestern El Salvador. He points to a minimalist-style villa on the freshly-mowed slopes of an island at the center of the lake. “That’s President Bukele’s. Ocho million dollares!”

In any other Latin American country, people would talk about their leader’s private wealth with scorn. But Charlie’s tone is one of praise, excitement, even pride. It’s a sentiment I encountered again and again while traveling through El Salvador, and for a good reason. Until recently, the country was known and feared as the “murder capital” of planet Earth, with 1 in every 10,000 residents falling victim to homicide. Today, four years after Nayib Bukele assumed office, the number of annual killings has dropped from 5,000 to just 495: a statistic that has earned him the lifelong gratitude of his constituents. “I can finally go outside without worrying,” a student from Universidad Don Bosco in Soyapango, previously the most dangerous suburb in the capital city of San Salvador, told me. “It still doesn’t feel real.” 

Born to a Muslim family that emigrated from Palestine, Bukele served as the mayor of San Salvador before setting his eyes on the presidency. A dark horse candidate, his anti-establishment, anti-corruption agenda allowed him to score a surprise victory against El Salvador’s entrenched elite. Many presidential candidates in Latin America promise to “drain the swamp” and put an end to the corruption that keeps their countries impoverished and oppressed, only to become a part of the establishment they vowed to tear down. Bukele is the rare example of a politician that not just kept his word, but managed to hold onto power while doing so. 

One of Bukele’s top priorities was to hunt down El Salvador’s biggest gangs, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18^th Street, which earn money through prostitution, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and transporting aliens across the U.S.-Mexican border. The government’s pursuit of the gangs resembles less of a crackdown than it does an all-out war. To this day, tens of thousands of heavily-armed soldiers are regularly mobilized to besiege and infiltrate criminal strongholds. 

Drastic problems require drastic measures, and Bukele’s was to arrest and imprison anybody who had even the slightest affiliation with the criminal underworld. As of 2023, more than 72,000 Salvadorians have been taken off the streets and stuffed into the country’s already overcrowded prisons. 

Bukele’s policies on crime, while effective, come at a cost. While the state has managed to round up many dangerous offenders, it also detained a significant number of individuals who – after close examination – turned out to be completely innocent. Gabriela, a lifelong resident of San Salvador and tech entrepreneur I met at a Miami-esque beach party in the surfer town of El Tunco, told me how, one day, her private driver stopped answering his phone. After contacting his sister, she learned he had been taken by the police while standing on the street drinking Pilsner – El Salvador’s national beer – with former gang members.

Accusing Bukele of human rights abuse, journalists and activists argue mass imprisonment won’t solve El Salvador’s problems but only make them worse. His proponents beg to differ: by cleaning up the streets, the president is able to develop public works that will improve the country’s economy and infrastructure. While highways and libraries can’t justify the injustice suffered by Gabriela’s driver, traveling through this new and improved, and above all, safer, version of El Salvador is making me kind of agree with the average citizen that these are, to an extent, necessary sacrifices. “I do not agree with everything Bukele does,” was the standard response I kept hearing from people, “but we are doing better than we were in the past – and that makes me feel hopeful about tomorrow.”

Where so many corruption-stricken Latin American countries live in an inescapable present, El Salvador is able to look towards the future. In addition to his war on crime, Bukele is best known for his embracement of cryptocurrency. Shortly after setting up shop in San Salvador’s casa blanca, the 42-year-old leader surprised the world by investing a sizeable portion of government funding in Bitcoin. In hindsight, the decision wasn’t all that surprising. The crypto craze was at an all-time high back then, and with Bitcoin’s value on the rise, Bukele saw an opportunity and must have thought he was about to triple the country’s coffers, even quadruple the amount of money he’d put in. Unfortunately, his announcement came moments before the crash of FTX and the federal investigation of its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried: events that set the crypto world on a downward spiral it has yet to escape from. While exact numbers are hard to come by, El Salvador is rumored to have lost upwards of $70 million.

You’d think such a blunder would damage the country’s economy, not to mention Bukele’s credibility, but that does not seem to be the case. In contrast to neighboring Guatemala, where a despotic Attorney General is currently attempting to undo the ascension of a democratically elected, left-leaning president with an agenda not unlike that of his Salvadorian counterpart, El Salvador remains stable, peaceful, even prosperous. One of the biggest benefits of Bukele’s war on crime is that the resulting safety opened the country up to an industry that had hitherto been all but non-existent there: tourism. At Coatepeque, construction workers are building a litany of hotels, hostels, and clubs to accommodate growing numbers of travelers. Still more projects are in the works at Lake Llopango, located outside San Salvador. 

“This place used to be extremely dangerous,” Gabriela told me as we walked up to a breathtaking mirador, or viewpoint, looking over a thick and seemingly endless canopy. “It’s where all the gangs from Soyapango went to hide.” 

More confused than concerned, I glance over at two soldiers standing guard, their fingers on the triggers of their loaded shotguns. Laughing, Gabriela informs me that their presence is purely ceremonial: Bukele, needing to maintain the standing army he’s amassed for his war, sends troops across the country to act as glorified bodyguards. Not to protect visitors from kidnappers – those odds, she says, are low – but so they have something to do until they are called to lay siege to the next criminal hideout. 

Though not as large as Guatemala and Honduras to the north, or as environmentally diverse as Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the south, El Salvador has much to offer the curious traveler. There’s Santa Ana, a colonial city near the Guatemalan border from where you can visit Coatepeque and climb the Santa Ana volcano, filled not with lava but with pools of boiling water. There’s El Tunco, the aforementioned surf town where you can test your skills on some of the largest, longest, roughest waves you’ve ever seen – or watch others do it from the beach. 

Aside from the grueling traffic, San Salvador is a surprisingly organized capital where neon-lit hipster cafes share parking spaces with hole-in-the-wall pupuserias – barebone cafeterias serving El Salvador’s signature dish: thick tortillas made from corn or rice, stuffed with cheese, pumpkin, spinach, or chicharron, to name only a handful of ingredients. 

While exploring El Salvador is no longer life-threatening, it’s still very adventurous. If you want to get from one place to another, you usually cannot book a private shuttle. Instead, you will have to hop on a public “chicken” bus, retired American school buses the U.S. government deemed too old and broken to transport children, but were given a second life in Central America. In many towns, you also have the opportunity to rent motorcycles. If you have never ridden one before, don’t worry – they neither require a license nor experience, and the roads of El Salvador are so chaotic that you’ll become a pro by the time you make it to your destination. That is, so long as you weren’t sent flying by some knee-deep pothole or camouflaged speed bump. 

The biggest adrenaline rush (or panic attack) I had in El Salvador was a group tour of the Siete Cascadas or Seven Waterfalls near the town of Juayua, a 1 hour motorbike ride south of Santa Ana, where what I had expected to be a calm and peaceful stroll quickly turned into something out of the survival novel Robinson Crusoe. Walking barefoot through a jungle infested with spiders, snakes, and crabs – yes, crabs – I was so taken aback by the absurdity of my predicament that I didn’t even think to object when my tour guide (a 9-year-old, crab-catching boy called Cristian) told us to climb up the waterfalls rather than go around them. “I don’t think this tour was approved by the Salvadorian Health and Safety Department,” I half-joked, latching on to the slippery, moss-covered rocks and praying I would live another day. 

As much as I ended up enjoying my stay, I originally didn’t plan on visiting El Salvador. Although I had heard of what Bukele was doing, I still pictured the country as it was in the past, the way it looked when I saw it on the news, or in an episode of World’s Toughest Prisons. Instead, I thought that I would spend more time in what the media portrayed as its safer, friendlier neighbor: Guatemala. Ironically, it was Guatemala that proved to be more unpredictable as, mere days after I entered El Salvador, rightfully-outraged Guatemalans clashed with law enforcement and barricaded the borders. Weeks later, they still haven’t managed to stop the old government from persecuting their president-elect. But that’s a different story. 

The post From Murder Capital to Vacation Destination: Exploring the New El Salvador appeared first on High Times.

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Carnival Cruises will continue to deploy drug detection dogs to search for pot and other drugs, according to a brand ambassador who confirmed the cruise line’s drug policy Tuesday.

Don’t plan on smoking if you’re vacationing on a cruise: Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), Royal Caribbean (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), and every other major cruise line operating or departing U.S. ports bans cannabis consumption on-board. Most display “Drug Free Zone” signs aboard and employ a zero tolerance policy.

Cruise lines follow federal law, which trumps state laws, even though their ships are not flagged in the U.S., so cannabis is prohibited in nearly every circumstance. The open seas are not actually lawless and laws typically extend miles from shore, and most cruises stop in multiple countries.

The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that Carnival Cruise won’t be changing its policy on cannabis anytime soon, after a brand ambassador clarified the cruise line’s efforts to control cannabis use on-board.

“As for the drug detection dogs, well let me say that they have, along with our no tolerance rules and enforcement, made a massive difference to the problem of people thinking it is legal and allowed to use marijuana on their cruise. It isn’t,” Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald posted on his Facebook page on May 23. 

Some cruise guests complained of the weed smell that is common on cruises. Passengers say they get it while ships dock on ports and when they venture into the city.

“They really need more drug dogs when we are getting back on the ship because people pick up drugs in ports and that is when I smell marijuana on the balconies,” a commenter named Janet replied on Heald’s page.

Problems with Drug Sniffing Dogs and Cannabis

There are a handful of problems with using dogs to sniff out drugs and pot. Commenters raised concerns about allergies to dogs that might be interfering with privacy.

Heald continued, “These uber intelligent and highly trained dogs are used at embarkation and occasionally, not every cruise on every ship will sail as well with their handlers. Again, the ships are large enough for this [to] not be a concern for anyone who is allergic…”

It turns out that the Washington Post asked this same question last March, and a CCL representative confirmed the cruise line’s cannabis policy.

“In case there’s any confusion, let me remind guests that while marijuana and cannabis products may be legal in some states, we are required to follow federal law irrespective of the law in the state where you may be boarding your ship,” CCL President Christine Duffy told the Washington Post.

Since dozens of states have legalized cannabis in one form or another, drug dogs in general are losing their jobs in droves. In other cases, drug-sniffing dogs are getting trained to ignore cannabis. Why? A major exposé from The Chicago Tribune in 2011 claimed that drug-sniffing dogs can pick up on and follow the biases and prejudices of their handlers. 

It’s not just dogs. China enlists drug-sniffing red squirrels, while honeybees could soon be the next natural drug locator. Researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany recently published a study in the journal Plos One, entitled “Detection of Illicit Drugs by Trained Honeybees,” showing the promise they have in law enforcement.

Cruise passengers who are caught with cannabis are typically punished quickly, and often kicked off the cruise at the next port.

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