Flying when your clothes smell of weed

[witchofzog]

I am taking a close family members dd on holiday in a couple of weeks. She is 10 and really excited as it is her first holiday. The issue is that I am 99% sure her parents grow cannabis and her clothes smell of it. She stays with us frequently and even after washing her clothes there is still a lingering smell.

Please don't tell me to notify the police or social services. This is not what the thread is about. This little girl is not neglected, is very very loved, doing well at school etc. Her parents are people who have not had much luck in their lives, live in a universal credit area and constantly struggle for money (aside for every 3 months or so when they seem a bit better off which is another reason I suspect they are growing rather than smoking weed) . I will not be calling anyone about this. I love them all and feel helpless though I do help as much as I can with money, food, gifts of clothes etc for their dd.

My actual question is if I can smell weed on her clothes how on earth will we get through airport security.? I have bought her some new bits but simply cannot afford to replace her entire wardrobe for summer. Will we get stopped? Could this prevent us from flying even though we are not carrying anything? She is so looking forward to this holiday and selfishly so am I. Any advice would be really welcome. Thank you.

[speakout]

And only growing 2-3 plants isn’t going to be much risk at all as that’s not even worth the polices time to investigate. There going for the people that have hundreds of plants not a couple!

Don't you believe it.

My ex was given 10 months for growing 12 plants. A first offence.

[hackmum]

Never mind the smell of weed, I can detect the whiff of something decidedly fishy about this thread...

[himynameiss]

Have a great holiday!
Definitely use Zoflora (a whole bottle) and use comfort intense fabric conditioner and then the comfort intense tumble dryer sheets.
My husband smokes the reefa and this gets rid of the smell * (I absolutely detest it)*

[mummabearfoyrbabybears]

Slightly different take but my husband is a bomb disposal engineer and has never ever been stopped because he has lingering residue on his clothing despite swabs he uses showing the residue level is too high. Very bizarre!

[MrsGorilla]

I’m concerned about this girl smelling of weed- they must be growing a LOT of it for her to smell of it all the time. It can’t be good for her?!

[MrsGorilla]

And I agree with everything speakout said. ‘Loving’ parents don’t make their kids grow up in a weed factory.

[Ktay]

Quite apart from anything else: if you are washing her clothes to buggery with bio detergents, zoflora, essential oils etc bear in mind her skin might not take kindly to it.

Also don't put yourself in position where you are having to lie to the authorities (eg secondhand clothes story)

[Olympiathequeen]

Put her in new clothes to travel so that the airport staff aren’t alerted by the smell and hopefully the dogs aren’t around to pick up the luggage or Home in on her. If they do say the clothes are second hand as someone suggested.

You may not want to contact SS and I totally agreee with you (way too much hysteria over cannabis) but if it’s picked up on her clothes only, the airport security staff may have to do it. A visit to the parents Home isn’t desirable.

I would talk to her parents and ask them to to segregate their dds clothes. Surely school uniform also smells. I think they are unaware of this and are in danger from school authorities as well.

[Ansumpasty]

speakout
It’s because 9 plants or less are the threshold for ‘growing for personal use.’ 12 plants looks like he was growing to distribute.

[Kissmycousinkate]

Wthe dogs don't usually come out for every flight, only really present for high risk flights eg Amsterdam, Thailand etc. If you're off to a holiday resort I'd be surprised I'd see a sniffer dog.

[speakout]

We don't know how many plants these people are growing.

"Two or three plants" is unlikely to taint everyone's clothes.

[speakout]

Ansumpasty

And although a few plants does make a strong case for personal consumption only and unlikely to attract a custodial sentence, the fact that there is a child in the home where any number of cannabis plants are being grown will lead to SS involvement.

Which will be very distressing to the child.

[Ansumpasty]

speakout True.

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

This thread stinks of something..

-Smelling of something is not a crime in any country.

-There's no way 2 or 3 plants hidden away could be smelt on washed clothes.. come on!

-Why are you only concerned about the airport? If she smells so strongly of weed because her parents are smoking around her then perhaps you should be concerned about neighbours or her school mentioning it to SS,

Or maybe you should be more concerned about her welfare than having the "embarrassment and inconvenience" of having your bag searched at a bloody airport!

[Ansumpasty]

And yet houses can have floor to ceiling bottles of spirits and...nothing

[Sprinklesinmyelbow]

Today 01:36 SickofThomasTheTank

So you're quite happy for the child to living around cannabis? If her clothes are smelling of it then she's inhaled it. Sod making the mother's life worse! What about making the child's life better?????!!!!!!!

How do you think OP could make her life better? What exactly do you think will happen if it’s reported?

[FleurDelacoeur]

Sniffer dogs will mainly operate behind the scenes. The will sniff bags coming off planes, being loaded onto planes. Staff will identify any suspicious bags and wait until someone picks them up. Just because you don't routinely see dogs, it doesn't mean they aren't there.

But crack on with the Zoflora, the Unstoppables, every other chemical you can throw at the problem to avoid upsetting these poor, unfortunate people who have simply no option but to grow drugs and have their "loved" child stinking of it. Catch yourself on.

[speakout]

And yet houses can have floor to ceiling bottles of spirits and...nothing

But that is not the point.

There is a separate debate to be had about the risks of cannabis use, and the negative impact it has compared to alcohol.

But the fact remains that cannabis is illegal. Disagreeing with the legislation does not make you immune to its power.

We have to work within the existing legislative framework.

[speakout]

Sarahjconno

And this questioning happened when you were a child?

How old were you?

[Juiceylucy09]

A couple of plants would definitely leave the clothes smelling. My BIL had two growing the whole house stank.

It will be fine travelling. I hope you all have a lovely holiday.

[ILostItInTheEarlyNineties]

Explaining -openly and honestly-that her parents smoke cannabis for medical/religiuos reasons

That's not true though? So it's not open and honest?

All the airport security are worried about is if you have drugs in your possession, that's it.
They won't be interested in a load of waffle about family members and religion.

[StripySocksAndDocs]

I think the focus is on the wrong thing here. What is being focused on is full of myths and misinformation.

It's rare for sniffer dogs to be brought out to passengers who are leaving the country. Its also unusal for the dogs to do random checks arrival side. It's usually flight dependant on which flights passengers are checked with sniffer dogs on arrival. Customs tend to go with profile and intelligence. Chances are low this will be an issue for this girl.

Another thing if a child smells so strongly of weed it's detectable to the human nose then it's imbedded. If a human can smell it still after the clothes have been washed then no amount of zorflora, dryer sheets, scented washing power or liquid, or essential oils will mask it from a drug dog.

How a dogs nose detects smells is fanastic. There could be hundreds of smells, but they can detect each one. You can't mask drugs from a drug dog. That's why they are used!!

[BitchQueen90]

Can you afford to buy her some clothes just to wear to the airport? From a charity shop or somewhere cheap?