Banning Canadians from U.S. for life for smoking pot 'ludicrous,' says Goodale

[S.J.B.]

Banning Canadians from U.S. for life for smoking pot 'ludicrous,' says Goodale
Peter Zimonjic, Julie van Dusen
CBC
September 8th, 2016

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says Canadians slapped with a lifetime ban on entering the United States for telling a border guard they have recreationally smoked pot is a "ridiculous situation" that needs to be addressed.

"We obviously need to intensify our discussions with our border authorities in the United States, including the Department of Homeland Security," Goodale told CBC's Power & Politics host Rosemary Barton.

"This does seem to be a ludicrous situation, because, as you say, not only is the state of Washington, but three or four other jurisdictions in the United States have legalized marijuana," he said.

Goodale was responding to the case of Matthew Harvey, who has been excluded from the U.S. for answering truthfully when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service asked if he had ever smoked pot recreationally.

"They said that I was inadmissible because I admitted to smoking marijuana after the age of 18 and before I'd received my medical marijuana licence," he said.

Read the full story here.

It's a good thing that this is in the Canadian news, as it should knock some sense into those who would have been naive enough to have answered such a question truthfully.

 

[spacejunk]

That's insane.
Such questions make the whole point of asking these things of people crossing the border completely absurd - and redundant - because most people will lie.
And once you've lied once, why stop there? It's a joke - not least of all because recreational cannabis users are not any threat to society simply for having the odd toke.

"Sorry sir, we only let liars into the United States"

 

[neversickanymore]

Canada bans us citizens with DUI convictions from passing through its borderline. What about them apples?

 

[ro4eva]

The last three U.S. presidents have all admitted to smoking pot, with the latter also admitting to snorting cocaine.

But I guess that's conveniently irrelevant.

 

[cj]

It's insanity. I like the line from the movie "traffic". The dealer charcter likens the DEA to Japanese soldiers living in the jungle of Pacific islands thinking the wold war 2 is still going on in the 1970s.

 

[Sobrietysucks]

Dishonesty is policy