Legal Impacts to Airports from State Legalization of Cannabis (2025)
Chapter: Front Matter
AIRPORT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM
Sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration
Legal Impacts to Airports from State Legalization of Cannabis
This digest was prepared under ACRP Project 11-01, “Legal Aspects of Airport Programs,” for which the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is the agency coordinating the research. Under Topic 15-03, this digest was prepared by Timothy M. Ravich, Tressler, LLP, Chicago, IL; Erin N. Bass, Eric P. Berlin, Joanne Caceres, and Amy Rubenstein, Dentons LLP, Chicago, IL, and Chris Fernando, Radial Vector Consulting, Raleigh, NC. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this digest are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; or the program sponsors. The senior program officer is Jordan Christensen.
Background
There are over 4,000 airports in the country and most of these airports are owned by governments. A 2003 survey conducted by Airports Council International–North America concluded that city ownership accounts for 38 percent, followed by regional airports at 25 percent, single county at 17 percent, and multi-jurisdictional at 9 percent. Primary legal services to these airports are, in most cases, provided by municipal, county, and state attorneys.
Research reports and summaries produced by the Airport Continuing Legal Studies Project and published as ACRP Legal Research Digests are developed to assist these attorneys seeking to deal with the myriad of legal problems encountered during airport development and operations. Such substantive areas as eminent domain, environmental concerns, leasing, contracting, security, insurance, civil rights, and tort liability present cutting-edge legal issues where research is useful and indeed needed. Airport legal research, when conducted through the TRB’s legal studies process, either collects primary data that usually are not available elsewhere or performs analysis of existing literature.
Foreword
The federal government classifies cannabis as an illegal Schedule I substance, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency categorizes as having “no currently accepted medical use.” However, many states have legalized cannabis, some for just medical use and some for both medical and recreational adult-use. The difference between the federal government classification and state’s legalization of cannabis requires a balance for airports located in states where cannabis has been legalized. This digest will be helpful for airports to understand the impacts of state’s legalization of cannabis on their environment, including employment.
The objective of this digest was to provide airports with guidance and analysis on the impacts of the conflict between federal and state laws related to the use of cannabis. The digest includes an appendix that lists each state’s legal cannabis status, and a matrix of each state’s cannabis employment regulations and testing policies. Additional material, the legal intoxicating hemp status for each state and the FAA Compliance Guidance Letter 2022-02, Marijuana, Hemp, and Cannabis Extracts Cultivation, Manufacturing, and Distribution at Federally Obligated Airports, can be found on the National Academies Press website (nap.nationalacademies.org) by searching for ACRP LRD 49: Legal Impacts to Airports from State Legalization of Cannabis under “Resources.”
