Carnival Cruise Line banned a Texas mother from their fleet for all times after she tried to get onboard certainly one of the corporate’s ships with a pack of CBD sleep aid gummies in Miami.
Melinda Van Veldhuizen, a 42-year-old mom of two, said she was treated “like a criminal” by cruise employees and police once they found a bag of the CBD “sleep tight” gummies while searching her backpack at PortMiami over the summer, Miami’s ABC News affiliate WPLG reported.
The Dallas-based nurse practitioner told the news station she packed the gummies to assist her get some sleep on the August trip she had planned to take along with her family to have a good time each her twenty first wedding anniversary along with her husband and her son’s senior 12 months of highschool.
Van Veldhuizen was taken right into a separate area after a cruise staffer found the CBD gummies in her bag.
She was then interrogated by Carnival security and police for two-and-a-half hours, she told WPLG.
The mom — who noted that she has never even gotten a parking ticket — was blocked from boarding the ship and her husband and sons didn’t need to go on the cruise to Aruba, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic without her.
The family had spent roughly $5,586 on their planned vacation, Van Veldhuizen’s attorney Daren Stabinski told The Washington Post.
CBD, a compound commonly derived from hemp that doesn’t cause impairment or a “high,” is different from marijuana which accommodates THC — a mind-altering substance, in line with the CDC.
CBD is legal in many of the country after Congress removed hemp — defined as any a part of the cannabis sativa plant with no greater than 0.3% of THC — from its list of controlled substances.
Van Veldhuizen’s gummies contained lower than 0.01% THC, in line with WPLG.
The hemp product, nevertheless, is prohibited by Carnival Cruise Lines.
“While certain CBD products used for medicinal purposes could also be legal within the US, they are usually not legal in all of the ports we visit and due to this fact are also considered prohibited items,” its website states.
Soon after Van Veldhuizen was forbidden from happening the cruise she paid for, she received a letter from Carnival informing her she was banned from all Carnival ships for all times, WPLG reported.
The letter signed by Captain Rocco Lubrano states that she is going to “not be permitted to sail onboard any Carnival Cruise Lines vessel in the long run.”
“This decision was based in your actions on the present cruise, which were a violation of the ship rules, interfered with the protection and/or enjoyment of other guests on the ship or caused harm to Carnival,” Lubrano wrote.
Van Veldhuizen said she has taken greater than a dozen Carnival cruises through the years and was freaked out by the letter and the entire experience.
“I believed it was certainly one of those situations where you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, I left a bottle of water in my backpack; you gotta throw it away,’ sort of thing like that happens at TSA,” Van Veldhuizen told the local news station.
She is now pursuing an internal claim with Carnival but has threatened to sue if her situation isn’t resolved “appropriately” and hired Stabinski to help her, The Washington Post reported.
“Out of all of the cases I take, this one was just specifically outrageous,” Stabinski said to WPLG.
Carnival didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Post.
Carnival Cruise Line banned a Texas mother from their fleet for all times after she tried to get onboard certainly one of the corporate’s ships with a pack of CBD sleep aid gummies in Miami.
Melinda Van Veldhuizen, a 42-year-old mom of two, said she was treated “like a criminal” by cruise employees and police once they found a bag of the CBD “sleep tight” gummies while searching her backpack at PortMiami over the summer, Miami’s ABC News affiliate WPLG reported.
The Dallas-based nurse practitioner told the news station she packed the gummies to assist her get some sleep on the August trip she had planned to take along with her family to have a good time each her twenty first wedding anniversary along with her husband and her son’s senior 12 months of highschool.
Van Veldhuizen was taken right into a separate area after a cruise staffer found the CBD gummies in her bag.
She was then interrogated by Carnival security and police for two-and-a-half hours, she told WPLG.
The mom — who noted that she has never even gotten a parking ticket — was blocked from boarding the ship and her husband and sons didn’t need to go on the cruise to Aruba, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic without her.
The family had spent roughly $5,586 on their planned vacation, Van Veldhuizen’s attorney Daren Stabinski told The Washington Post.
CBD, a compound commonly derived from hemp that doesn’t cause impairment or a “high,” is different from marijuana which accommodates THC — a mind-altering substance, in line with the CDC.
CBD is legal in many of the country after Congress removed hemp — defined as any a part of the cannabis sativa plant with no greater than 0.3% of THC — from its list of controlled substances.
Van Veldhuizen’s gummies contained lower than 0.01% THC, in line with WPLG.
The hemp product, nevertheless, is prohibited by Carnival Cruise Lines.
“While certain CBD products used for medicinal purposes could also be legal within the US, they are usually not legal in all of the ports we visit and due to this fact are also considered prohibited items,” its website states.
Soon after Van Veldhuizen was forbidden from happening the cruise she paid for, she received a letter from Carnival informing her she was banned from all Carnival ships for all times, WPLG reported.
The letter signed by Captain Rocco Lubrano states that she is going to “not be permitted to sail onboard any Carnival Cruise Lines vessel in the long run.”
“This decision was based in your actions on the present cruise, which were a violation of the ship rules, interfered with the protection and/or enjoyment of other guests on the ship or caused harm to Carnival,” Lubrano wrote.
Van Veldhuizen said she has taken greater than a dozen Carnival cruises through the years and was freaked out by the letter and the entire experience.
“I believed it was certainly one of those situations where you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, I left a bottle of water in my backpack; you gotta throw it away,’ sort of thing like that happens at TSA,” Van Veldhuizen told the local news station.
She is now pursuing an internal claim with Carnival but has threatened to sue if her situation isn’t resolved “appropriately” and hired Stabinski to help her, The Washington Post reported.
“Out of all of the cases I take, this one was just specifically outrageous,” Stabinski said to WPLG.
Carnival didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Post.
