Harvey’s bad trip
Canadian Matthew Harvey was banned for life from the United States in 2014 after he gave U. S. border guards an honest answer when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana. Harvey, who is now a licensed medical marijuana user, told the border agents the truth: he had smoked pot as an adult, even before he got his medical marijuana licence. Turns out that was not the response U. S. Customs and Border Protection wanted to hear.
Even though Harvey was attempting to cross the border into Washington state, where marijuana use was ( and still is) legal, the border service declared him inadmissible to the country. In the United States, pot is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. That means that despite the legalization of medical marijuana use in 25 states and Washington, D. C., pot remains one of the most dangerous and firmly limited drugs in the country, as far as the U. S. government is concerned.
Some solace may be taken from the fact that Harvey, and others like him who have been classified as inadmissible to the U. S. because they have smoked weed, can apply for travel waivers that allow them to enter the country for limited periods. It’s an expensive and inconvenient process, but at least it mitigates the impact of the irrationally severe lifetime ban — that is, it does if whatever customs and border official who receives the waiver application happens to be in a positive frame of mind on that particular day.
That is one of the serious and familiar problems Harvey’s story highlights: border agents in both the United States and Canada have an extraordinary amount of control; t hey have the ability to make completely arbitrary decisions that have major impacts on people’s lives. To some extent, such arbitrary power is inevitable and necessary for the respective countries to keep their nations safe and their populations secure, while also maintaining smooth border passages. There would be impossible lineups at airports and other entry points if every person who passed through were entitled to a full judicial hearing on the reason for their visit and the authenticity of their documents.
For those who value liberty, however, the pendulum seems to have swung to the other extreme, with border agents now boldly demanding cellphone and laptop passwords so they can check a traveller’s private email messages and Word documents. Agents are able to subject people to hours of invasive questioning on the slimmest of pretexts if they decide they don’t like their l ooks or the contents of their luggage.
In Harvey’s case, it was a marijuana magazine in his car that set his six-hour customs ordeal in motion. Another Canadian reported being questioned over a copy of the 9/ 11 Commission Report when passing through U. S. Customs in Toronto, until the border guard was satisfied it was not meant as a primer on how to commit terrorist acts. Anyone who’s ever passed through customs with a work visa can attest to the feeling of helplessness that arises when one’s entire ability to earn a living for the next year or two depends on the whims of a border agent who may take just two or three seconds to make a decision.
The other problem Harvey’s story highlights is just how complicated t hings are l i kely to become f or Canadian travellers to the United States when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government legalize marijuana.
Legalization is the right thing to do, but there should be no il l usions t hat t he change will be simple or painless. As Harvey’s situation reminds us, the U. S. government is too stubbornly wedded to its illogical drug policy for that.
BORDER AGENTS HAVE AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF CONTROL.