Lawyers brace for spike of pot issues at border
Past or present use a problem U.S. law can keep out anyone who smoked pot before Oct. 17.
Marijuana has been legal in Canada for a month already but immigration lawyers and cannabis executives say when it comes to getting into the United States, the worst may be yet to come.
As Canadians get used to the fact that cannabis is no longer against the law in their country, some experts fear they will forget the perils that past and present marijuana use still poses for those seeking to cross the Canada-U.S. border. Henry Chang, a Torontobased immigration lawyer, says he’s bracing for a spike in cases of people who end up being barred outright from entering the U.S. for owning up to using pot.
Customs and Border Protection officials have made it clear that anyone who admits to using marijuana prior to Oct. 17, the day it became legal in Canada, could be barred from entering the country.
Chang says U.S. law can still keep out anyone deemed to be a drug abuser or addict, or who is diagnosed with a mental disorder with a history of related harmful behaviour — including alcoholism or marijuana use.
Investors and employees in the cannabis industry, too, are on shaky ground — one U.S. executive says the risk of being banned for life from crossing the border has become a major preoccupation for his Canadian colleagues.
“The bigger issue is people thinking the slate has been wiped clean,” Chang said in an interview.
“I think we’re going to start seeing more people getting banned, not because of them smoking marijuana after Oct. 17, but just because they think they have nothing to hide and they blurt out that they smoked marijuana when they were 18. That’s going to happen, because people just don’t understand that it’s still barred.”
U.S. border authorities initial- ly warned that any Canadian who gave off a whiff of pot involvement — from using the drug to working or investing in the industry — risked being barred or denied entry.
They later softened that stance, saying industry workers would generally be deemed admissible so long as they were travelling for reasons unrelated to their work.
Some Canadians travelling to MJBizCon, a major cannabis industry conference last week in Las Vegas, faced additional scrutiny at various border screening points.
U.S. border staff at the airport in Toronto steered attendees through a secondary screening process, said Global Public Affairs’ senior vice-president Rod Elliot, who advises various clients in the cannabis industry.
Elliot said he was one of roughly 25 people who were selected for additional screening — several of whom missed their flights, including him.
He travelled to Las Vegas the next morning without incident.
“There has been challenges for people going across the border,” he said.
In the meantime, Chang has some common-sense advice for anyone who might have reason to be anxious entering the U.S.
“Don’t dress like a hippie, don’t smell like marijuana.”