… Tell us now, so we can Stay Out if that is what you want.
(c) 2018, Davd
I am a Canadian who was educated in your country, at a respected university.
Recently, i was warned by CBC News, not personally but as a member of the Canadian public, that as someone who has used cannabis in the past, i may be forbidden to enter the USA again. The article does not say “used much” or “used often”. It seems to say that trying cannabis once, because some friends nagged me to, is enough to ban me for life, despite several of your “states” having made recreational cannabis lawful1. So, unless and until i have been assured “trying it” will not ban me from entering the U.S., i will take care to avoid your borders.
During the 1990s, so long ago and so briefly that i do not remember what year, i smoked part of one ‘reefer’ at the urging of some people in BC. I do not remember for certain if i tried another the next hour or next day. I will say that i was nagged to try the marijuana but not more than twice. When i said that i had tried it and did not think it was enough fun to pay for — that settled the question.2
Now, it seems, you the U. S. Government have made your rules governing admission to your territory, much more strict. In 2003, the last time i entered the United States, i was not worried about having tried and then rejected cannabis in the previous decade. Now, CBC News tells me, i should be very worried.3
Much more recently, i suffered a mild dose of second-hand cannabis smoke. That happened last month, shortly after cannabis use was legalized here.4 If your border agent were to ask about having “used” recently — does second-hand cannabis smoke, constitute “use”? I had little or no more power to not inhale that smoke coming down the hallway, than i had to not inhale second-hand cigarette smoke as a boy riding in my mother’s car.5
To me, it is absurd to punish trying and rejecting something years earlier — so absurd that i have even less desire to visit the United States than i had before i read that October 30 news story. Does the United States of America really judge everyone who lives outside your borders, on the basis of the worst legal treatment available for something that person did? however long ago?
If CBC News “got that right” in the October 30 article, then to be prudent, i will take extra care not to enter the USA. I will avoid events and people there who i might have considered visiting until now. I would advise all readers of this blog6, to stay out of the United States if they have ever allowed cannabis smoke or any “edible” containing cannabis, to enter their bodies… until they have clear published assurance from the United States Government, that their exposure to cannabis will be tolerated.
My “use” happens to have been tentative and minimal. I would be surprised if a majority of Canadians “of adult age” have used as little or less. If my trial and rejection of cannabis turns out to be something you choose to publish a decision to tolerate — what of other people’s different past and perhaps present “use”? There are a few million Canadians, i estimate, who have “used” recently and might use again. Do you, “Uncle Sam”, choose to accept them as visitors, or not? It would be only fair, to let them know, in clear language.
They should know before they go buying tickets into your good old USA, before they buy timeshares in winter housing, etc. Their employers and colleagues should know before deciding to give them work that entails entering the USA.
Maybe I should repeat that for emphasis, addressed to employers and professional collegia: When you consider sending workers to the US for tasks or meetings, you need to assure yourselves and them, that they will be allowed to go there. When you consider having a meeting in the USA, you need to estimate, and “more rather than fewer” to be on the safe side: How many good potential participants will be excluded by these new, stricter cannabis user exclusion procedures?
(Having been educated in your country, i happen to remember the word “extraterritoriality”. Being a foreigner who has not lived there in decades, i will not venture a definition. It does seem rather like you are undertaking to punish some people for lawful acts which would not have been lawful if done the US.)
Tough luck, for Canadian snowbirds who planned to winter again in California, Arizona, Florida [etc] and have ever used cannabis. The United States Government, in whose territory you have been spending money earned in Canada, has chosen to bar you from coming there to spend more.
Looks to me, U.S. Government, like you have an incentive to develop and publish rules that let innocent former cannabis users, enter your country with a clear blessing to be there. You have an incentive to admit many of them for business and to spend money in the US. Until i read your published rules and can logically work out that they give me a clear blessing to be there — I’ll stay here. It will be better for the Canadian economy if i spend my money here, same as i have been doing since a brief visit there in 2003.
Notes:
1. According to Wikipedia, 9 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington), plus the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Business Insider” confirms the number of states.
2. As my friend Hans had said earlier, “I prefer beer”.
3. Quoting the article: “If you say, ‘Yeah, I smoked marijuana when I was 18, but it’s not a problem, right?’ — it is problem. You are barred for life, as if you had been convicted back then.”
4. The apartment manager identified the source of the smoke and cautioned them about their future use.
5. You might quibble and say i could have fled the building. That’s not really practical in an Alberta winter, though.
6. Perhaps excepting US citizens. I don’t know how they will be treated and legalistically, it is none of my business.
