As Canada inches closer to legalizing recreational cannabis, lawyers and lawmakers are highlighting an issue that is already affecting citizens at the border: Canadians who admit to ever using cannabis are finding themselves banned from the United States.
Alan Ranta is one of them. In 2016, the music journalist was driving from Vancouver to a festival in Washington state. At the border, a guard asked if he had ever smoked cannabis. He decided to answer honestly – conceding that he uses cannabis regularly but had none with him – and was shocked to find himself in handcuffs as a result.
Now he’s barred from the United States for life, and the ban will never be lifted. He can only visit the country if he applies for a costly, temporary waiver. It means he can no longer make monthly visits to Trader Joe’s in nearby Bellingham, nor can he take trips to Seattle or Portland for music festivals or vacation. He can’t visit his late father’s cottage in Point Roberts, Washington anymore – a place he spent much of his childhood, and which he used to visit at least once a summer.
“I wish I had said nothing at all,” Ranta tells Lift News. “I wish I’d refused to answer the question and revoked my application for entry. If I had done that, I couldn’t have been barred, as I have no criminal record. However, since I did answer the question honestly, I basically have the equivalent of a criminal record according to the U.S. federal government – the same as if I had been convicted of rape, arson or murder.”
Jane Switzer – Lift&co – April 26, 2018.
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