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| USA Tourism: Pot smokers will be banned for life |
Canada's likely move to completely legalize marijuana next year promises
to produce immediate spillover effects in the United States, starting
with increased confusion at the U.S.-Canadian border.
"I'm expecting my business to boom," said Len Saunders, an immigration attorney from Blaine, Wash.
With recreational marijuana already legal up and down the West Coast,
from Alaska to California, he said, more Canadians may let down their
guard and admit to U.S. authorities that they've used marijuana, reason
enough to get foreigners barred from entering the country. Beyond that,
pot retailers and legalization backers say it's difficult to predict
exactly what might happen if Canada, as expected, becomes only the
second nation in the world to fully legalize pot for anyone over 18 on
July 1, 2018.
Even with such a big move, Jacob Lamont figures the Canadian customers
will keep coming to Evergreen Cannabis, his pot shop in Blaine, just a
few blocks from the U.S.-Canadian border.
"I enjoy my brothers and sisters from the north — obviously they support
my business quite well," said Lamont, who estimates that Canadian
customers make up 60 percent of his year-round business. "They still
come down here. They buy a lot of milk, they buy cigarettes and they buy
alcohol, because the taxation is so high up there. And I have a feeling
they're going to follow suit with marijuana."
Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a longtime champion of legalization, said it could be a game changer for Congress.
"It completely changes the dynamic," he said. "Some regard Canada as the
51st state. This is going to make a big difference in terms of
adjusting attitudes and accelerating progress. ... It's going to help us
bring these things to a head."
Saunders scoffed at the idea that the United States would ever legalize
marijuana with President Donald Trump, a teetotaler, in the White House.
"You have a president who not only has an attorney general (Jeff
Sessions) who is going to fight drugs, but you have a president who's
never even had a sip of alcohol," Saunders said.
One of Saunders' clients, Alan Ranta, 36, a freelance music journalist
from Vancouver, British Columbia, got barred last year as he tried to
drive his Toyota Yaris into Washington state. During questioning, he was
handcuffed and told a U.S. border guard he had smoked marijuana in the
past. Even though he was not carrying the drug with him at the time,
Ranta said, he was told that under U.S. law he had committed "a crime
involving moral turpitude."
"It lulls you into a false sense of security when you don't have
anything on you and you've done nothing wrong and you're going to a
place where it's legal," Ranta said. "You keep thinking, 'This is crazy,
why am I getting in trouble?'"
He figures he was stopped because he and a friend were headed to a music
festival, with a banana suit, tutus and a psychedelic top hat visible
in the car: "If it's an electronic music festival, we like to dress up
in weird things that we'd never wear day to day."
Saunders said that even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as a
private citizen, could be denied entry since he had admitted to smoking
marijuana in the past. Saunders is advising people not to lie to border
authorities but to refuse to answer any questions about past pot use.
Note Almere-Digest: It is up to you now dear US visitors: either you lie, or choose another tourist destination than Trumpland.
Read more: Have you ever smoked pot? Saying yes can get foreigners barred for life at US border
