Mom banned from cruise line for life after she got caught bringing CBD gummies on board
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: WPLG / AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
A mom has been banned from a cruise line after she tried to take some gummies onto the boat.
And before you ask, no these were not just regular gummy bears or wine gums.
In fact, they were CBD gummies, which 42-year-old Texas mom Melinda Van Veldhuizen had brought onto the boat to help her get some sleep.
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CBD remains a grey area as while many US states have legalised the use of licensed CBD products, they are still not legal in other countries.
And given that the cruise would be visiting other ports, this could well be a problem.
The full name of CBD is Cannabidiol, and while it has a similar name to Cannabis, it does not actually contain a large amount of the active ingredient, THC, which is found in the Devil's Lettuce.
Hemp products are classed as a product which has less than 0.03% THC, and have been removed from the list of controlled substances in the US.
Nonetheless, they remain a grey area outside of the States, which would include on a cruise.
And this is what led to Melinda's unfortunate run-in on a Carnival cruise.
The mom said she felt she had been treated 'like a criminal' due to taking the gummies with her on the trip in August to mark her 21st wedding anniversary.
But she was taken aside when an employee of the cruise line found the gummies in her bag during a check.
Melinda claimed she was then questioned for two and a half hours by employees at the cruise line.
She was then blocked from entering the cruise ship, with her sons and husband saying they didn't want to go on the cruise, which was stopping at Aruba, Curaçao, and the Dominican Republic, without her.
While the gummies only contained 0.01% THC, they were prohibited by the company.
The Carnival website states: “While certain CBD products used for medicinal purposes may be legal in the US, they are not legal in all the ports we visit and therefore are also considered prohibited items."
She received a letter from Carnival Cruise clarifying that she would also be hit with a lifetime ban as a result of the incident.
The letter states: “This decision was based on your actions on the current cruise, which were a violation of the ship rules, interfered with the safety and/or enjoyment of other guests on the ship or caused harm to Carnival."