A Vancouver Island man who won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans has been refused entry into the U.S. because of a marijuana possession conviction dating back to 1981.
Victoria resident Myles Wilkinson won the trip in a fantasy football league contest, competing against nearly four million other players for the chance to attend the National Football League championship, featuring the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.
But when he got to Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Thursday, U.S. customs agents learned of a marijuana possession conviction in Vancouver in 1981 and told him he was not allowed to enter the country.
"I had two grams of cannabis. I paid a $50 fine," Wilkinson told CBC news.
Wilkinson said he was 19 when he was busted.
"I can't believe that this is happening, for something that happened 32 years ago."
Wilkinson's denial of entry into the U.S. is a common story, according to Dana Larsen, director of the Sensible B.C. campaign, a group advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana.
"There's hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have these criminal records for small amounts of cannabis and that results in a lifetime ban for accessing the U.S."
Now that two U.S. states — Washington and Colorado — have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, Larsen is pushing for a similar referendum in B.C.
"Being a cannabis user should not be a criminal offence. It should be regulated and taxed and controlled, but it should not be banned."
Larsen said RCMP have doubled the number of possession charges in B.C., laying about 3,800 charges for possession in 2011.
"That means every day 10 more British Columbians face the lifetime stigma of a possession charge."
Beer-maker Bud Light Canada, which sponsored the fantasy football contest that Wilkinson won, has invited him to attend its Super Bowl party at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom as their guest Sunday afternoon.
source
I hope everyone in the US sleeps better tonight.
Victoria resident Myles Wilkinson won the trip in a fantasy football league contest, competing against nearly four million other players for the chance to attend the National Football League championship, featuring the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.
But when he got to Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Thursday, U.S. customs agents learned of a marijuana possession conviction in Vancouver in 1981 and told him he was not allowed to enter the country.
"I had two grams of cannabis. I paid a $50 fine," Wilkinson told CBC news.
Wilkinson said he was 19 when he was busted.
"I can't believe that this is happening, for something that happened 32 years ago."
Wilkinson's denial of entry into the U.S. is a common story, according to Dana Larsen, director of the Sensible B.C. campaign, a group advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana.
"There's hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have these criminal records for small amounts of cannabis and that results in a lifetime ban for accessing the U.S."
Now that two U.S. states — Washington and Colorado — have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, Larsen is pushing for a similar referendum in B.C.
"Being a cannabis user should not be a criminal offence. It should be regulated and taxed and controlled, but it should not be banned."
Larsen said RCMP have doubled the number of possession charges in B.C., laying about 3,800 charges for possession in 2011.
"That means every day 10 more British Columbians face the lifetime stigma of a possession charge."
Beer-maker Bud Light Canada, which sponsored the fantasy football contest that Wilkinson won, has invited him to attend its Super Bowl party at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom as their guest Sunday afternoon.
source
I hope everyone in the US sleeps better tonight.
not only on a personal level for the guy, but on a bigger larger scale.
i live in BC and i know tons of people who have convictions. my mother lives in the USA and i'm petrified, as a marijuana smoker, of getting 'busted'. it won't make much of a difference to me in many areas of my life, but going to visit my mom? who lives in washington state?
i would be livid if i was turned away, NGL.
i don't bring anything illegal with me when i go.
i vacuum my car, and wash all articles of clothing beforehand and i don't drive stoned.
marijuana laws are so ridiculous :/
Vacuuming the car I get. But washing all articles of clothing (assuming so they don't smell)? Can they do anything if your clothes smell of pot, but you dont have anything on you?
http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/04/23/Feldm
Is it worth having an aspect of your life that terrifies you for being caught? Or is cannabis smoking so important to you (or seeing your mother unimportant enough) that you choose to risk losing that option and carry on using?
Edited at 2013-02-04 06:43 am (UTC)
Edited at 2013-02-04 06:41 am (UTC)
Alcohol is, of course, legal under our laws, because it is perfectly safe and innocuous and has NEVER caused anyone to do anything harmful to anyone else. Marijuana, however, is the spawn of Satan and must be treated as the seriously dangerous and scary drug that it is. #heavy sarcasm
It's just plain....stupid. :/
pretty sure it's only illegal to (a) give reason to put a lot of black men behind bars and (b) there are a lot of people making a LOT of money on it being illegal (drug cartels, etc)... I'm sure people get paid off.
First world problems, etc.
The fact that drug abuse and other drug related problems are not treated as the publich health problems that they are (i.e. rather than crimes) will never make sense to me.
I think other countries could learn a thing or two from Portugal:
"Portugal, (...) in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine".
(From here: http://www.time.com/time/health/art
Smoking marijuana does have health consequences. It is not benign (e.g. research suggests that it probably has a detrimental effect on the lungs similar to tobacco smoke, potential long-term effects on learning and memory). OTOH, I can't for the life of me fathom what putting people who smoke cannabis in prison accomplishes. (The answer is not much.)
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/d
Health Effects of Recreational Marijuana:
http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessat
(Caveat: Although I certainly haven't seen all the evidence, I'm not sure things are quite as cut and dry as the above references, especially the first one, suggest.)
I know a few people who have gone through this. You can get a minor charge removed from your record by the Canadian government, and every other country in the world accepts it except for the US.
It gets absurd. I posted a story above about a man who wrote an paper about the us of LSD years ago and admitted using it almost 40 years ago...so he can't visit family and friends in the US. Last I'd heard, he'd reached a dead-end.
Mom used to tell my sister and I to pretend to be asleep as we pulled up to the crossing. A woman with two young kids, both asleep? What's threatening about that, right?
Holy Christ, if we'd ever gotten caught.
My Dad used to smuggle fireworks back into NY from Quebec. He used my sister and I for the same nefarious purpose. Way to go Dad.
While this law is supremely stupid in it's length, Canada has a similar law on it's books for simple DWIs and DUIs.
*shrug* I mean, it's sad. I feel bad for the guy. I can't even imagine what that poor man felt. If I were in his place, I'd probably start crying. XD But considering how insane this country is, it doesn't surprise me.