Report: Canadian Pot Smokers Risk Ban From U.S.

Canadian cannabis users, investors, and workers will risk a “lifetime ban on travel to the U.S.” if American officials gain knowledge of such information, a senior Customs and Border Protection official told Politico. Canada will legalize retail marijuana sales starting Oct. 17, the world’s first major industrialized nation to do so, but Todd Owen—executive assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations—said the pot industry is not welcome in the United States. Owen told the website that Canadians who have smoked pot in the past and lie about it to an official will have committed “fraud and misrepresentation, which carries a lifetime ban.” If the traveler admits to past use, they will be considered “inadmissible” and will not be allowed to return unless they pay a $585 waiver fee. In addition, investors and pot-industry professionals will not be considered admissible. “We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” Owen said. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the United States had the right to enforce its borders the way it wanted to. “Every country has the right to judge who gets to come into their borders or not. I wouldn’t presume to have any other country tell me how or who we can let into Canada,” he said. “And I certainly won’t work to assume or impress upon the U.S. who they have to let in or not.”