Can you take CBD oil on a plane?

Cannabidiol (CBD) has seen a massive boom in popularity over the last several years, with individuals turning to the once-underrepresented cannabinoid for everything from 

In this post, we’ll explore why you might want to travel with CBD oil, whether you can take CBD oil on a plane, domestic and international regulations governing CBD oil, and a few specific tips to help you safely travel with CBD oil.

Why travel with CBD oil?

There are plenty of reasons to want to travel with CBD oil, especially if you’ve already incorporated CBD consumption into a broader wellness routine and want to maintain that routine while traveling. Other travelers might turn to CBD oil for help with travel-related stress and anxiety, and still others might want to utilize CBD to help relax after arriving at their destination. 

One use case for CBD stands out in the context of taking CBD on a plane: alleviating anxiety related to flying, also called aviophobia or aerophobia.

Aviophobia is a surprising common condition — about 40 percent of the U.S. population experiences it to some degree, according to a 2019 article from the Washington Post — and its manifestations can range from mild discomfort to outright panic attacks or compulsively avoiding air travel altogether. Interestingly, aviophobia can also be part of a broader anxiety disorder, which some individuals may already be alleviating with CBD outside of the context of air travel.

Can you take CBD oil on a plane?

In short, you can likely take CBD oil on a plane if you’re flying within the domestic United States. This is because the airspace over the U.S. is governed by federal law, which has allowed for the growth, sale, possession, and consumption of hemp-derived CBD on a national scale since 2018 thanks to that year’s Agricultural Improvement Act.

The TSA has also released guidelines regarding cannabis and travel, though the current guidelines pertain specifically to medical marijuana. As the TSA states, any cannabis products you plan to travel with must adhere to the federal requirement to contain less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by dry weight. You can find the cannabinoid content on the certificate of analysis (COA) that should have come with your product if you purchased it from a reputable vendor.

If you’re carrying CBD oil with you in liquid form (e.g., in a bottle with a dropper), your product will still need to comply with the TSA’s general rules for liquids, which are limited to 3.4 ounces (100 ml). For CBD oil contained in a vape pen, you must transport your vape pen battery and any cartridges in your carry-on luggage.

Of course, when traveling with any cannabis product, you risk tangling with law enforcement. Even if your product is technically legal, spending time trying to explain the nuances of hemp legalization to a law enforcement officer on a power trip could mean missing your flight. While this might be a bigger cause for concern if you were to travel with CBD-rich hemp flower, which is often indistinguishable from regular cannabis flower, it is still important to acknowledge that you’re taking a risk when you decide to travel with CBD oil.

Ultimately, the safest option for cannabis consumers who want to incorporate CBD into their wellness routine is to simply purchase a CBD product that aligns with their goals.

CBD oil for international travel

While CBD oil might be legal in the United States, it’s important to check up on the relevant laws governing cannabis products at your destination. Cannabis remains illegal in most of the world. Some places, such as Hong Kong, have even specifically banned CBD products.

If you’re planning to consume CBD when traveling from the United States to a country where all cannabinoids are illegal, make sure you’ve only brought enough of your product of choice for you to consume while on U.S. soil. If you have leftover products, discard them before boarding your plane rather than risk inspection soon after you land.

The good news is a growing number of countries around the world are legalizing cannabis consumption, including consumption of CBD products. For example, the United Kingdom, which has been resistant to cannabis legalization, passed similar CBD legislation similar to that of the United States in the same year. Canada, which legalized recreational consumption even for products containing THC in 2018, is also likely to be a safe destination for travelers carrying CBD.

Additional tips for traveling with CBD

If you’re planning to fly with CBD, it's essential to purchase your CBD products from a reputable vendor so that you know exactly what is in your CBD. 

In fact, in 2020 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report stating that, in a sample of 200 products ranging from tinctures to pet products, about half of those products contained some THC. The presence of THC would make it illegal to travel with any of those products.

If you want to buy high quality CBD products from reliable brands, we recommend shopping for CBD using Jointly Matches. When you buy a cannabis or CBD product through Jointly Matches, you can rest assured that it comes from a pre-vetted company. 

With Jointly Matches, you’ll be able to view the COA for your CBD products and verify based on those lab testing results whether the product has the right profile of cannabinoids and terpenes to support your wellness goals.

Jointly Matches also allows you to see how other Jointly users rated products for goals like managing aches and pains and improving sleep.

Another helpful tactic for flying with CBD is to travel with a product that comes with discreet packaging — think subtle designs that might cause anyone who inspects your luggage to assume your CBD product is, for example, a cannabis-free face serum.

Lastly, as an extra measure to protect yourself in case law enforcement does decide to interfere with your travel plans because you’re suspected of carrying an illegal cannabis product, it might be worth having a copy of your COA accessible to you as you go through the security checkpoint. COAs tend to be just a couple of pages, and you can keep a PDF copy on your phone or toss a printed copy in with any other documents that might be relevant to travel plans, such as tickets or an itinerary.

Find top-rated products for your goals 

Jointly is the cannabis discovery app that makes it easy to find and shop the best cannabis and CBD products for your goals. Your matches are calculated from the real product ratings and experiences from hundreds of thousands of people using the Jointly app.

If you're ready to discover new products and reach your goals, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or shop your matches on the Jointly website.   

Are you curious about Jointly?

Whether you want to improve sleep, relieve daily stress, or just relax and refresh, Jointly can help you reach your goals with cannabis.  

With Jointly, you can shop your top-rated products, and save lists of your favorites to share and bring to your local dispensary to help guide your shopping experience.  

The Jointly app also helps you improve your cannabis experiences by uncovering what’s working and what’s not with reflections and personalized insights. In fact, the quality of your diet, how much you slept, who you’re with, and the time of day are just some of the factors that can impact your cannabis experience.  

So if you're ready to find your best products and enjoy your perfect cannabis experience, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or shop your matches on the Jointly website. Discovery awaits.