Effective Feb. 2, a new Standard Transportation Commodity Code, or STCC, went into effect to govern the shipment of cannabis and related products between Canadian provinces and territories. The codes are used on waybills and other shipping documents.
Export of marijuana remains illegal, but BNSF Railway isn’t taking any chances.
Last month, in a customer advisory, the railroad reminded intermodal shippers that the movement of cannabis and related products is prohibited in the United States.
“In accordance with U.S. federal law, BNSF does not permit the movement of cannabis on our network,” BNSF stated in the advisory. “We have recently added provisions to both the Intermodal Rules & Policies Guide and BNSF Rules Book 6100-Series … clarifying that cannabis and associated products (including edibles) are prohibited items and are not accepted by BNSF, either directly or in interchange, for rail transportation. Shippers are responsible for all associated costs and expenses, including fines or penalties, resulting from the tendering of prohibited shipments.”
BNSF may be the first railroad to add cannabis to its list of prohibited products. Cannabis did not turn up among banned commodities in a search of publicly available data on the other Class I systems that operate in the U.S.
While several states have legalized recreational marijuana, it’s illegal to ship the product across state lines, even between states where pot is legal.
In October, Canada became the first developed nation to legalize recreational marijuana, which is now sold in a mixture of government-run and privately owned pot shops across the country. Edibles and other marijuana products become legal later this year under the country’s Cannabis Act.
Railinc, the North Carolina company that maintains STCC codes, says on its website that proposals for new codes come from various sources, including carriers, private industries, and individuals.
“STCC proposal requests are submitted to Railinc’s Business Services Division using ‘Form for New STCC Identification’ attached to the STCC master or monthly supplements. Proposals are processed monthly by the STCC Committee, and if approved, the new STCC code and description are published concurrently with the STCC 6001 supplements,” the company’s website says.
The codes also apply to truck shipments.
The Steel Roads website supported by Railinc shows “Cannabis and associated products in” to have a code of 0119311. The product is also grouped under “Farm Products.”
Railinc and railroads did not respond to requests for comment.
Retired after many years of recreational use . Your inane ” dope is dope , but alcohol is not so it is not the same when I drink ” argument shows that you are not capable of logical thought.
I think you’ll find the amount of damage done by Alcohol far exceeds marijuana, but that is the drug of choice for the old white dudes that preach on trainswire , so that’s ok.
How did they handle this in Colorado,Oregon,Washington where this damaging crop is legal?
J. Rice is correct, here in NE the railroad right of ways have some really fine looking hemp growing there. The difference why people don’t harvest it is because it is considered ditch weed as it’s power ingredient is nil. A number of years ago a group came out from the Midwest to harvest some and used it as filler to make it look like they had a lot of supply
Darryl – That means 6% of the population is unemployable by any standard, and up to 20% are unemployable by the standards of several zero – tolerance industries: construction, transportation, law enforcement etc.
I find no comfort in your statistics. The proper percentage of people using recreational Maryjane should be zero.
Okay, found the link to the article I referenced below.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cannabis/article-trajectory-of-colorado-pot-market-gives-glimpse-of-whats-ahead-for/
Last paragraph:
“In Colorado, however, legal cannabis remains a product that the large majority of people – more than 80 per cent – do not use. Research from the Marijuana Policy Group estimates about one million people in the state used cannabis in 2017, roughly one of six people. But it was frequent users who account for most of the demand: People who used cannabis at least every other day – about 340,000 people, 6 per cent of the state population – were responsible for 90 per cent of cannabis demand.”
Its pretty funny to read the over-the-top comments here. 5 months after legalization in Canada, its a big non-issue. A “nothing-burger” as they say. The people that used it before, are still using it, only legally now. The vast majority of people that never used it before still aren’t using it.
There was an excellent article in the Globe and Mail business section last October (sorry, I can’t find it now) where they analyzed the business of pot legalization with all the frenzy of start up companies and the stock market froth of cannabis companies. They said usage in Canada would probably follow the same trajectory as Colorado – where after 5 years of legalization, 6% of the population accounts for 90% of pot use.
John Winter – The Democrat Party is all-in on weed. The party is a bunch of hard-core dopers as was (in his earlier years) its most recent president.
Dope is dope. It’s not the same as alcohol, which I do use (in moderation). I have no time for dope and as far as I know, none of my family or friends use the stuff.
Bear this in mind:
Marijuana is illegal in my state, as it should be. I hope against hope it always will be, but there’s little chance of that. Our new Democrat governor (who you can be d…ed sure I didn’t vote for) is a proponent of decriminalization.
Even in states where marijuana is legal, employers have every right to not hire dopers and to dismiss dopers. WHETHER OR NOT under the influence during work hours.
In my career (I’m now retired) one puff of marijuana, if detected, would have been enough to fire me, as it should have been. Even if that puff of marijuana was on my own time on vacation a thousand miles away from the office.
I’m quite confident BNSF has the same policy for its work force, including BNSF workers in legal dope states like California and Colorado.
All persons in legal dope states who smoke legal dope are, well, dopes. I wish all of them a well-earned lifetime of unemployment.
Uruguay was the first developed nation to do it.
There’s a good reason why they call it “dope”. You have to be a dope to take it & if you just started taking it, don’t worry, you’ll also be a dope soon enough. For those that think it’s OK to dope up, ask yourself this. Would you like your surgeon high on dope when he operates on you? Good for BNSF to stand up for what’s right.
BNSF probably has more weed growing on their ROW so they don’t need to ship anything. Locals just walk down to the tracks and harvest.
Way to go BNSF! Now if we can only get rid of the Democrats in power in Washington state, we might have a few less problems with “weed”. Isn’t alcohol enough? Humans are big enough screw-ups by nature. What do they need with marijuana?
Britt Reid,
I’m not sure Uruguay is considered a developed nation for the purposes of this discussion.
Coal is going away marijuana can be a new source of business.