Cruise lines are waging a war on drugs. Lately the big floating pollution and bacchanalia machines have been pulling out all the stops to prevent marijuana products from getting aboard. Carnival Cruise Line has started bringing a squadron of drug dogs to root out the druggies and drag them back to land. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, passengers are confused at the sudden about face, as they’ve previously openly smoked or consumed edible marijuana with no repercussions. Other passengers say they’ve been kicked off their ship in a foreign port, or received lifetime bans from cruising.
It seems the most likely answer for these acts of prohibition on the part of the cruise lines is monetarily motivated. With drinks packages garnering as much as $138 per day per passenger for the ship’s budget, allowing passengers to bring weed aboard is probably eating into company profits. The cruise lines say they’re simply abiding by federal laws in the countries they sail to. Marijuana is illegal in many Carribean and Central American countries, and remains federally illegal here in the U.S., despite having been legalized in many states.
Some cruise lines have even outlawed CBD products which don’t produce a high, despite Congress legalizing these products at the federal level five years ago. Some passengers are copping lifetime bans from Carnival when CBD gummies were found in a pre-cruise screening, and others are getting kicked off immediately in foreign ports without so much as a partial refund for uneaten meals or unused rooms. Even customers who have medical prescriptions for marijuana use aren’t excluded from the ban.
“I’m convinced that the decision to take such a hard line on marijuana or CBD is because they are trying to drive alcohol sales,” says Spencer Aronfeld, a Florida-based cruise ship case attorney.