29 ms·

Wow, some really interesting edge cases in there that require serious thought. US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - fo

by grecy 8y ago

Wow, some really interesting edge cases in there that require serious thought. US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. If you work at a 100% legal Government-run Cannabis store and want to go to the US for a holiday, you "Could be found admissible". could! When arriving by air into Canada you will be asked about previous Cannabis use. What? They don't ask about previous alcohol use, why do they for what is now perfectly legal Cannabis?

Tharkun 8y ago
> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use What? How? Why? That makes no sense.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  They can deny entry for pretty much any reason. You are correct that the US border policy with Canada doesn't make any sense.
  - doombolt 8y ago
    I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. If confession equals conviction, laws about right to remain silent should also apply. I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing.
    - maxerickson 8y ago
      That's sort of orthogonal to the consequence of honestly answering the question. And of course the policy also says that if they think you lied, they might use that as a reason to deny entry in the future.
      - doombolt 8y ago
        Yes, but did not they teach you to think before talking? They are free to not let you in, but you are free to ignore any irrelevant or intimate questions.
        maxerickson 8y ago
        I don't understand your "teach you to think before talking" remark. I said your comment was orthogonal because it didn't address anything I had said in my other comment. Of course someone wanting to the enter the country will weigh their options, I'm just laying out the potential consequences, for someone that apparently had not heard of them (the other commenter, not you).
        bregma 8y ago
        Nope. Ignoring or refusing to answer the question is grounds for denying admission or being permanently denied admission.
        doombolt 8y ago
        You can just say "no". And smile. Will be completely correct on your part.
        coryfklein 8y ago
        > Guard: "Have you consumed weed in the last 30 days?" > You: "No" If you have consumed in the last 30 days, then your "No" response is definitely not correct.
        doombolt 8y ago
        Yes it is correct. They have no business asking this. If a question is incorrect, you can answer whatever you like to it. Lying is only giving wrong answers on correct questions. If a person sticks their nose where it does not belong, too bad. I have rights to do any kinds of thingd to my body, and I have exactly zero obligation to disclose it, unless in strict contexts of medical help or driving.
    - cmrdporcupine 8y ago
      You have no rights at the border.
      - doombolt 8y ago
        Say who? Did you notify the UN about these findings?
        bregma 8y ago
        https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3846 https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3846
        doombolt 8y ago
        You seriously do not think that you can override Human Rights agreements with some "congress bill", do you? For some time you might act that way, but you are trespassing. There is no right to cross the border, but there's loads of other rights, human and otherwise, that you still undeniably have while being at the border.
        bregma 8y ago
        The legislation I linked to suspends all constitutionally-guaranteed rights "at" the border (ie within 100 miles of a border crossing, including any airports with international flights) if you are not an American citizen. The suspension of constitutional rights has been tried and upheld by a number of SCOTUS cases. There is no international body regulating any other kind of right, despite the well-meaning intention of a number of organizations.
        doombolt 8y ago
        If you are not an American citizen you are still a citizen of some other country, which has its own obligations before its citizens to uphold their human rights, even when they cross someone other's border. This may end up ugly for the USA if they try to abuse that decision. Not every country in this world is Mexico.
    - xoa 8y ago
      >I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. While thread didn't really get into citizenship, if you're aren't a citizen of the state in question you have no right of entry. The state has the right to ask for any information they wish and set criteria for entry as they wish. It's not a matter of "incrimination" as in you go to jail, it's a matter of obtaining permission for entry, you have no "right to remain silent". And in a democratic state I don't think that's immoral either. Knowing is in fact their business, and if it shouldn't be then the government should tell its border controls to not inquire at all. >I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing. Obviously as a practical matter there are many situations where the odds of getting caught are minimal to non-existent, but I would be very cautious about casually committing perjury. Particularly in this worrying day and age of photos everywhere and ever increasing ML that can actually make sense of it and centralized datasets that governments may be able to gain access to. For example, particularly when the behavior is made legal I'd expect there to be a lot more people who post pictures of themselves using cannabis or not being concerned if someone else in the picture is because of course it's legal. Combine with spreading facial recognition and person tagging on places like Facebook and advertising (since it's legalized) that will be actively and legally interested in "is so-and-so a user so we can sell them related products" and someone could quite easily end up in a database saying "confirmed to use cannabis" without ever knowing. There are many times where "the coverup is worse then the crime" is quite true, and something that would merely get you politely or not so politely turned away would turn into a serious crime by lying about it. You can't know when an authority is asking you something out of actual interest vs a question they know the answer to already just to test you. Honesty and political pressure seems better in this specific case given that it's not like there isn't already a major legalization movement in the US too. Canada is an extremely important business partner and source of tourism and ally. If enough Canadians were denied entry over this then even under this administration pressure to simply change the rules to ignore it would be very high. If not under this one then when the Democrats retake control.
      - VLM 8y ago
        "if you're aren't a citizen of the state in question you have no right of entry." There's a huge racial component. Essentially all of this "you're not allowed to" talk is strictly for white people only.
    - monkeynotes 8y ago
      You have very few rights at a border. Almost any border, not just the US. A border is very much like a no-man's land where the law of the country you are entering or leaving is suspended. You can be held, searched without cause, refused entry at a guard's discretion (no reason is needed), and so on. Arguing your 'rights' at a border is one very good way to be seen as cause to get secondary screening and perhaps refusal of entry. And they are pretty good at detecting if you are lying - lots and lots of training there, you'd be surprised how easily unprepared people give themselves away in even the most simple lies.
  - apaprocki 8y ago
    Canada will deny a US citizen entry if they’ve ever had a DUI in their life, even if it was 30 years ago. Many people find this out the hard way.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - LeftTurnSignal 8y ago
      A friend had an expunged disorderly conduct when he was 13. We were in our 20s, and were detained by the Canadian border for about 9 hours. Then they escorted us back because of the disorderly. The second time I got detained was only for 5 hours though. The second time I went in mid to late 20s by myself. After searching my car for 3 hours, they didn't find anything and I was let go. I hate it.
      - burger_moon 8y ago
        That's interesting, I went to Canada with my Mom and sister one time when they were visiting. My sister had a felony from when she was under 18 and it was also expunged or whatever the term. We had to sit for about an hour and she had to go through a bunch of questioning but eventually they let us all through. Every time tho I've had my car searched, it's too much of a hassle really to bother with going up there anymore for me personally.
      - derefr 8y ago
        I was detained for about an hour when entering at the Canadian border from the US. I'm a Canadian citizen, and was in the US for a conference for about a week. Canadian CBP is... something.
    - jrace 8y ago
      A DUI is a criminal offence. You are being denied entry to the country because of the criminal offence. Canadians are being denied entry into the US simply for what the US deems to be "immoral behavior". That is a very slippery subjective slope to be on. Even having investments in Cannabis stocks can get you barred for life. Do you know where your mutual funds go at night...
  - eqdw 8y ago
    I've been denied entry in the past because I was insufficiently precise when writing down a date in my paperwork. They can deny for any arbitrary reason, or no reason at all!
- coryfklein 8y ago
  Border guards are duty-bound to turn away people that they suspect are likely to commit crime and, in the United States as a whole, weed possession/consumption is still considered a crime worthy of jail time. Although I think weed should be legal, in the mean time I am not interested in my taxes paying for the confinement or deportation of Canadians. Ergo, one can support weed legalization and also believe that weed consumption can be used from a practical perspective to deny entrance to foreigners.
  - antidesitter 8y ago
    > Although I think weed should be legal, in the mean time I am not interested in my taxes paying for the confinement or deportation of Canadians. Ergo, one can support weed legalization and also believe that weed consumption can be used from a practical perspective to deny entrance to foreigners. This makes no sense. How does having consumed weed in the past entail that one will consume weed in the United States? This is like saying that a person who has driven on the left in the past will drive on the left in the United States, and should therefore be denied entry. It's ridiculous.
    - coryfklein 8y ago
      I think driving on the left is a false analogy. We don't drive on the left because we enjoy it or because it makes us happy. However, if we have consumed weed in the recent past, that is a strong signal that we have a preference for weed and would pursue the experience again in the future. If you and I had a betting market that allowed us to bet on an individual's likelihood of consuming weed while in the United States, knowledge of that person's past behavior in consuming weed would be a strong piece of evidence that you could use when making a bet. Anybody consuming weed today is more likely to have consumed it in the last 30 days than somebody that is not consuming weed today.
      - antidesitter 8y ago
        So what probability do you assign to someone smoking weed illegally in the United States, given that they have smoked weed in a different country where it's legal?
q3k 8y ago
> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. That was already the (insane) case. Consider people who live in the Netherlands, or Czechia, or Portugal.
- lupajz 8y ago
  Hey, person living in Czechia here. Weed is illegal here. For carrying a joint or up to 10g of weed, you can get fined up to 600USD. More than that and you might have some serious problems with police. Of course you can't smoke it in public only at home. I think it's quite a misconception about Czechia being super weed friendly. As a tourist you are most probably going to get scammed on streets of Prague. If you want to feel more free about weed consumption Netherlands is the place to go to.
  - chrisweekly 8y ago
    Tangent: when did "Czechia" become a recognized short form of "Czech Republic"? (I lived and worked in Prague in the late 90's and before today had never come across "Czechia".)
    - hprotagonist 8y ago
      1925; but more seriously, 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic
    - qwerty456127 8y ago
      Some years ago but I'm really surprised there are people who care about whether the words they use are officially "recognized".
      - lmm 8y ago
        I don't particularly care about what's official so much as what people use in conversation, but seeing the name of a country change within my own lifetime is an unusual and interesting experience.
Theodores 8y ago
I have been sent to the back of the queue to tick boxes on forms correctly by U.S. customs/border jobsworths and wondered why the experience has to be so patronisingly humiliating. Once on a connecting flight so I wasn't even wanting to leave the airport. At the time I was working for a highly regarded company and going on to do some work for CBC in Toronto. I had flown in on business class and my smile, polite British English, white skin, smart clothes, clean passport and squeaky clean criminal record should have given me a free pass. I wasn't even carrying any highly unusual electronic hardware. And no I had not been a member of the 'communist party'. As I saw it there was just a problem of 'customer service'. The mentality of border guards should be to welcome guests to the country and not treat everyone as a criminal. As a non-U.S. person I am like a lot of people that just see the U.S. as not the place to want to go to. I know that most Americans lay on fantastic hospitality for visitors, welcoming you into their homes and looking out for you. But the hostile border guards obfuscate that. Canada is the far more preferable destination, whether you want to be stoned all day or not matters little really, the legalisation of weed sends a signal that Canada is the much more welcoming place to go. Tourism matters, I do wonder how much tourist trade the U.S. misses out on due to the negative perception the world has of the place.
- bengale 8y ago
  I travelled to the US once and it was incomparable to anywhere else I'd been in the world with regards to border control. I won't go back. I was even questioned by some shady American dude at the gate in London, was a weird experience.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  > The mentality of border guards should be to welcome guests to the country... Perhaps they assume that if border guards establish a friendly relationship like that, it will only help bad actors distract the border guard from strictly enforcing the rules through jokes, small talk, etc. Still, if the USA wants that approach, it could still learn a lot from Israeli passport control. Whenever I have entered Israel I have been asked a lot of questions and the official had some reasonable suspicion about my plans and travel history, but this questioning was still done in a fairly respectful and professional way. The guard wasn’t glum and surly like American border agents.
qwerty456127 8y ago
> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction" Why? Is it not just selling and possession but also the very act of smoking illegal in the USA? Are the USA citizens forced to follow the homeland laws wherever they travel even if the laws at where they are are different? It sounds like if they had to still drive the right sides of the roads when in UK/Japan.
- Sharlin 8y ago
  No, it's more similar to being denied entry to the US because you have previously driven on the left side of the road in the UK.
  - grecy 8y ago
    Or you have driven at 200mp/h on the Autobarn in Germany. Obviously perfectly legal in Germany, but seriously illegal in the USA, so the border guards will deny you entry for breaking a US law while you where in a country where it's not illegal! insanity!
- refurb 8y ago
  If you admit to smoking it, you must have been in possession of it.
  - coryfklein 8y ago
    Why the distinction? Both smoking and being in possession are illegal in the US anyway.
    - qwerty456127 8y ago
      It can make logical sense to ban selling or producing but outlawing a person to consume whatever (except when driving, operating machinery or doing some other kind of job potentially dangerous to others) is plain absurd - every person's body belongs only to themselves and they drink/smoke/eat whatever they want.
graybolt 8y ago
Note that they can't stop you from entering the country if you're a US citizen. They can, however, make it a massive pain in the ass. Anyone have any practical experience here?
poulsbohemian 8y ago
I just had a crazy thought - so it's legal in Canada, it's legal in Washington State, but it's illegal in the eyes of the border guard separating the two because he's a US federal employee. That's seriously fascinating.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
  Well, the thing is it's not really legal in WA, Federal law applies to WA. It's just not illegal at the state level any more.
  - poulsbohemian 8y ago
    Au contraire, that's my point - it is legal in the state of Washington, by the vote and actions of the people. Likewise, by the vote and actions of the people of British Columbia it is legal. But, to a political body 2000 miles away it is not. And, because they have a representative who stands in a little box separating those two groups who have voted and acted, it is somehow made illegal should he or she wish to harass someone crossing that invisible line. It's ripe for a Kafka novel really.
    - coryfklein 8y ago
      > it is legal in the state of Washington, by the vote and actions of the people The people who live in Washington only decide a subset of the laws for the state. It is still illegal to possess or consume weed in Washington because WA is a part of the United States of America, where weed is illegal nationwide. The "United States of America" as a political body is defined by the borders of the United States of America (within which WA is completely contained), it is not located in Washington DC.
      - poulsbohemian 8y ago
        You are missing the nuance of what I'm saying, but I don't have the energy to explain it right now. Are you the Cory Klein in Minnesota (with whom I went to college)?

by grecy 8y ago

Tharkun 8y ago

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use What? How? Why? That makes no sense.

maxerickson 8y ago
They can deny entry for pretty much any reason. You are correct that the US border policy with Canada doesn't make any sense.
- doombolt 8y ago
  I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. If confession equals conviction, laws about right to remain silent should also apply. I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    That's sort of orthogonal to the consequence of honestly answering the question. And of course the policy also says that if they think you lied, they might use that as a reason to deny entry in the future.
    - doombolt 8y ago
      Yes, but did not they teach you to think before talking? They are free to not let you in, but you are free to ignore any irrelevant or intimate questions.
      - maxerickson 8y ago
        I don't understand your "teach you to think before talking" remark. I said your comment was orthogonal because it didn't address anything I had said in my other comment. Of course someone wanting to the enter the country will weigh their options, I'm just laying out the potential consequences, for someone that apparently had not heard of them (the other commenter, not you).
      - bregma 8y ago
        Nope. Ignoring or refusing to answer the question is grounds for denying admission or being permanently denied admission.
        doombolt 8y ago
        You can just say "no". And smile. Will be completely correct on your part.
        coryfklein 8y ago
        > Guard: "Have you consumed weed in the last 30 days?" > You: "No" If you have consumed in the last 30 days, then your "No" response is definitely not correct.
        doombolt 8y ago
        Yes it is correct. They have no business asking this. If a question is incorrect, you can answer whatever you like to it. Lying is only giving wrong answers on correct questions. If a person sticks their nose where it does not belong, too bad. I have rights to do any kinds of thingd to my body, and I have exactly zero obligation to disclose it, unless in strict contexts of medical help or driving.
  - cmrdporcupine 8y ago
    You have no rights at the border.
    - doombolt 8y ago
      Say who? Did you notify the UN about these findings?
      - bregma 8y ago
        https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3846 https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3846
        doombolt 8y ago
        You seriously do not think that you can override Human Rights agreements with some "congress bill", do you? For some time you might act that way, but you are trespassing. There is no right to cross the border, but there's loads of other rights, human and otherwise, that you still undeniably have while being at the border.
        bregma 8y ago
        The legislation I linked to suspends all constitutionally-guaranteed rights "at" the border (ie within 100 miles of a border crossing, including any airports with international flights) if you are not an American citizen. The suspension of constitutional rights has been tried and upheld by a number of SCOTUS cases. There is no international body regulating any other kind of right, despite the well-meaning intention of a number of organizations.
        doombolt 8y ago
        If you are not an American citizen you are still a citizen of some other country, which has its own obligations before its citizens to uphold their human rights, even when they cross someone other's border. This may end up ugly for the USA if they try to abuse that decision. Not every country in this world is Mexico.
  - xoa 8y ago
    >I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. While thread didn't really get into citizenship, if you're aren't a citizen of the state in question you have no right of entry. The state has the right to ask for any information they wish and set criteria for entry as they wish. It's not a matter of "incrimination" as in you go to jail, it's a matter of obtaining permission for entry, you have no "right to remain silent". And in a democratic state I don't think that's immoral either. Knowing is in fact their business, and if it shouldn't be then the government should tell its border controls to not inquire at all. >I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing. Obviously as a practical matter there are many situations where the odds of getting caught are minimal to non-existent, but I would be very cautious about casually committing perjury. Particularly in this worrying day and age of photos everywhere and ever increasing ML that can actually make sense of it and centralized datasets that governments may be able to gain access to. For example, particularly when the behavior is made legal I'd expect there to be a lot more people who post pictures of themselves using cannabis or not being concerned if someone else in the picture is because of course it's legal. Combine with spreading facial recognition and person tagging on places like Facebook and advertising (since it's legalized) that will be actively and legally interested in "is so-and-so a user so we can sell them related products" and someone could quite easily end up in a database saying "confirmed to use cannabis" without ever knowing. There are many times where "the coverup is worse then the crime" is quite true, and something that would merely get you politely or not so politely turned away would turn into a serious crime by lying about it. You can't know when an authority is asking you something out of actual interest vs a question they know the answer to already just to test you. Honesty and political pressure seems better in this specific case given that it's not like there isn't already a major legalization movement in the US too. Canada is an extremely important business partner and source of tourism and ally. If enough Canadians were denied entry over this then even under this administration pressure to simply change the rules to ignore it would be very high. If not under this one then when the Democrats retake control.
    - VLM 8y ago
      "if you're aren't a citizen of the state in question you have no right of entry." There's a huge racial component. Essentially all of this "you're not allowed to" talk is strictly for white people only.
  - monkeynotes 8y ago
    You have very few rights at a border. Almost any border, not just the US. A border is very much like a no-man's land where the law of the country you are entering or leaving is suspended. You can be held, searched without cause, refused entry at a guard's discretion (no reason is needed), and so on. Arguing your 'rights' at a border is one very good way to be seen as cause to get secondary screening and perhaps refusal of entry. And they are pretty good at detecting if you are lying - lots and lots of training there, you'd be surprised how easily unprepared people give themselves away in even the most simple lies.
- apaprocki 8y ago
  Canada will deny a US citizen entry if they’ve ever had a DUI in their life, even if it was 30 years ago. Many people find this out the hard way.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - LeftTurnSignal 8y ago
    A friend had an expunged disorderly conduct when he was 13. We were in our 20s, and were detained by the Canadian border for about 9 hours. Then they escorted us back because of the disorderly. The second time I got detained was only for 5 hours though. The second time I went in mid to late 20s by myself. After searching my car for 3 hours, they didn't find anything and I was let go. I hate it.
    - burger_moon 8y ago
      That's interesting, I went to Canada with my Mom and sister one time when they were visiting. My sister had a felony from when she was under 18 and it was also expunged or whatever the term. We had to sit for about an hour and she had to go through a bunch of questioning but eventually they let us all through. Every time tho I've had my car searched, it's too much of a hassle really to bother with going up there anymore for me personally.
    - derefr 8y ago
      I was detained for about an hour when entering at the Canadian border from the US. I'm a Canadian citizen, and was in the US for a conference for about a week. Canadian CBP is... something.
  - jrace 8y ago
    A DUI is a criminal offence. You are being denied entry to the country because of the criminal offence. Canadians are being denied entry into the US simply for what the US deems to be "immoral behavior". That is a very slippery subjective slope to be on. Even having investments in Cannabis stocks can get you barred for life. Do you know where your mutual funds go at night...
- eqdw 8y ago
  I've been denied entry in the past because I was insufficiently precise when writing down a date in my paperwork. They can deny for any arbitrary reason, or no reason at all!
coryfklein 8y ago
Border guards are duty-bound to turn away people that they suspect are likely to commit crime and, in the United States as a whole, weed possession/consumption is still considered a crime worthy of jail time. Although I think weed should be legal, in the mean time I am not interested in my taxes paying for the confinement or deportation of Canadians. Ergo, one can support weed legalization and also believe that weed consumption can be used from a practical perspective to deny entrance to foreigners.
- antidesitter 8y ago
  > Although I think weed should be legal, in the mean time I am not interested in my taxes paying for the confinement or deportation of Canadians. Ergo, one can support weed legalization and also believe that weed consumption can be used from a practical perspective to deny entrance to foreigners. This makes no sense. How does having consumed weed in the past entail that one will consume weed in the United States? This is like saying that a person who has driven on the left in the past will drive on the left in the United States, and should therefore be denied entry. It's ridiculous.
  - coryfklein 8y ago
    I think driving on the left is a false analogy. We don't drive on the left because we enjoy it or because it makes us happy. However, if we have consumed weed in the recent past, that is a strong signal that we have a preference for weed and would pursue the experience again in the future. If you and I had a betting market that allowed us to bet on an individual's likelihood of consuming weed while in the United States, knowledge of that person's past behavior in consuming weed would be a strong piece of evidence that you could use when making a bet. Anybody consuming weed today is more likely to have consumed it in the last 30 days than somebody that is not consuming weed today.
    - antidesitter 8y ago
      So what probability do you assign to someone smoking weed illegally in the United States, given that they have smoked weed in a different country where it's legal?

q3k 8y ago

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. That was already the (insane) case. Consider people who live in the Netherlands, or Czechia, or Portugal.

lupajz 8y ago
Hey, person living in Czechia here. Weed is illegal here. For carrying a joint or up to 10g of weed, you can get fined up to 600USD. More than that and you might have some serious problems with police. Of course you can't smoke it in public only at home. I think it's quite a misconception about Czechia being super weed friendly. As a tourist you are most probably going to get scammed on streets of Prague. If you want to feel more free about weed consumption Netherlands is the place to go to.
- chrisweekly 8y ago
  Tangent: when did "Czechia" become a recognized short form of "Czech Republic"? (I lived and worked in Prague in the late 90's and before today had never come across "Czechia".)
  - hprotagonist 8y ago
    1925; but more seriously, 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_Czech_Republic
  - qwerty456127 8y ago
    Some years ago but I'm really surprised there are people who care about whether the words they use are officially "recognized".
    - lmm 8y ago
      I don't particularly care about what's official so much as what people use in conversation, but seeing the name of a country change within my own lifetime is an unusual and interesting experience.

Theodores 8y ago

I have been sent to the back of the queue to tick boxes on forms correctly by U.S. customs/border jobsworths and wondered why the experience has to be so patronisingly humiliating. Once on a connecting flight so I wasn't even wanting to leave the airport. At the time I was working for a highly regarded company and going on to do some work for CBC in Toronto. I had flown in on business class and my smile, polite British English, white skin, smart clothes, clean passport and squeaky clean criminal record should have given me a free pass. I wasn't even carrying any highly unusual electronic hardware. And no I had not been a member of the 'communist party'. As I saw it there was just a problem of 'customer service'. The mentality of border guards should be to welcome guests to the country and not treat everyone as a criminal. As a non-U.S. person I am like a lot of people that just see the U.S. as not the place to want to go to. I know that most Americans lay on fantastic hospitality for visitors, welcoming you into their homes and looking out for you. But the hostile border guards obfuscate that. Canada is the far more preferable destination, whether you want to be stoned all day or not matters little really, the legalisation of weed sends a signal that Canada is the much more welcoming place to go. Tourism matters, I do wonder how much tourist trade the U.S. misses out on due to the negative perception the world has of the place.

bengale 8y ago
I travelled to the US once and it was incomparable to anywhere else I'd been in the world with regards to border control. I won't go back. I was even questioned by some shady American dude at the gate in London, was a weird experience.
Mediterraneo10 8y ago
> The mentality of border guards should be to welcome guests to the country... Perhaps they assume that if border guards establish a friendly relationship like that, it will only help bad actors distract the border guard from strictly enforcing the rules through jokes, small talk, etc. Still, if the USA wants that approach, it could still learn a lot from Israeli passport control. Whenever I have entered Israel I have been asked a lot of questions and the official had some reasonable suspicion about my plans and travel history, but this questioning was still done in a fairly respectful and professional way. The guard wasn’t glum and surly like American border agents.

qwerty456127 8y ago

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction" Why? Is it not just selling and possession but also the very act of smoking illegal in the USA? Are the USA citizens forced to follow the homeland laws wherever they travel even if the laws at where they are are different? It sounds like if they had to still drive the right sides of the roads when in UK/Japan.

Sharlin 8y ago
No, it's more similar to being denied entry to the US because you have previously driven on the left side of the road in the UK.
- grecy 8y ago
  Or you have driven at 200mp/h on the Autobarn in Germany. Obviously perfectly legal in Germany, but seriously illegal in the USA, so the border guards will deny you entry for breaking a US law while you where in a country where it's not illegal! insanity!
refurb 8y ago
If you admit to smoking it, you must have been in possession of it.
- coryfklein 8y ago
  Why the distinction? Both smoking and being in possession are illegal in the US anyway.
  - qwerty456127 8y ago
    It can make logical sense to ban selling or producing but outlawing a person to consume whatever (except when driving, operating machinery or doing some other kind of job potentially dangerous to others) is plain absurd - every person's body belongs only to themselves and they drink/smoke/eat whatever they want.

graybolt 8y ago

Note that they can't stop you from entering the country if you're a US citizen. They can, however, make it a massive pain in the ass. Anyone have any practical experience here?

poulsbohemian 8y ago

I just had a crazy thought - so it's legal in Canada, it's legal in Washington State, but it's illegal in the eyes of the border guard separating the two because he's a US federal employee. That's seriously fascinating.

TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
Well, the thing is it's not really legal in WA, Federal law applies to WA. It's just not illegal at the state level any more.
- poulsbohemian 8y ago
  Au contraire, that's my point - it is legal in the state of Washington, by the vote and actions of the people. Likewise, by the vote and actions of the people of British Columbia it is legal. But, to a political body 2000 miles away it is not. And, because they have a representative who stands in a little box separating those two groups who have voted and acted, it is somehow made illegal should he or she wish to harass someone crossing that invisible line. It's ripe for a Kafka novel really.
  - coryfklein 8y ago
    > it is legal in the state of Washington, by the vote and actions of the people The people who live in Washington only decide a subset of the laws for the state. It is still illegal to possess or consume weed in Washington because WA is a part of the United States of America, where weed is illegal nationwide. The "United States of America" as a political body is defined by the borders of the United States of America (within which WA is completely contained), it is not located in Washington DC.
    - poulsbohemian 8y ago
      You are missing the nuance of what I'm saying, but I don't have the energy to explain it right now. Are you the Cory Klein in Minnesota (with whom I went to college)?