Only northerners will know, but Canada has been a popular party destination for several generations of young Americans. Ever since the mid-1980s, when the last few U.S. states raised the drinking age to 21 years old, Canada has had an obvious allure for thirsty-but-frustrated college-age adults living in college-heavy places within driving distance of the border like Boston, Vermont, upstate New York and Detroit.<\/p>\n
Beginning Oct. 17, when marijuana legalization becomes \u201cofficial\u201d and cannabis will be sold in state-sanctioned retail stores, there will be yet another reason for Americans to visit Canada \u2014 and unlike a frat house\u2019s boozy pilgrimage, the draw of legal cannabis is not age-specific. Also unlike alcohol tourism, cannabis tourism is likely to cause all kinds of problems at the border \u2014 for Americans.<\/p>\n
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has already created tension along one of the world\u2019s safest borders by denying entry into the U.S. to Canadians who admit to smoking marijuana. (Current federal law allows for \u201cdrug abusers\u201d to be permanently, for life, denied entry into the United States<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and anyone who admits having used cannabis once in the last year can meet that definition.)<\/p>\n And as the Washington Post reported<\/a>, Americans who travel to Canada for reasons of pot tourism and dare return home with any leftover treats will also risk severe punishment \u2014 a real issue for anyone living in urbanized areas like Detroit, which lies just across the river from Canadian cities like Windsor.<\/p>\n Customs\u2019\u00a0ill-treatment of American citizens for cannabis would be a step beyond, but one that can be expected, given Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019\u00a0attitude towards marijuana.<\/p>\n As the paper observed, \u201cU.S. citizens who try to cross back into the United States carrying marijuana bought legally in Canada to states where it is legal to have it could be arrested at the border crossings for possession \u2014 or drug smuggling \u2014 and face stiff fines or years in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n And though Sessions does not run the Department of Homeland Security, which manages Customs, that agency\u2019s anti-cannabis attitude is well-documented\u2014and early indications are that DHS is happy to enforce federal marijuana law, regardless of what individual states are doing.<\/p>\n \u201cCBP is always concerned about criminal activity at our U.S. borders,\u201d the agency told the Post in a statement. \u201cCBP officers are the nation\u2019s first line of defense, including prevention of illegal importation of narcotics, including marijuana. U.S. federal law prohibits the importation of marijuana and CBP officers will continue to enforce that law.\u201d<\/p>\n Windsor already has casinos and a drinking age of 19 years old. When the city adds recreational marijuana dispensaries, the crossing between the two cities\u2014already the second-busiest between the two countries<\/a>; Windsor\u2019s mayor says he frequently pops over to the U.S. for lunch at a favorite Thai restaurant \u2014 is only going to increase, thanks in part to marijuana.<\/p>\n Jon Liedtke, the owner of Higher Limits Cannabis Lounge in Windsor, says he has every intention to welcome American tourists \u2014 despite what risks they may face while attempting to head home. \u201cAll of the Americans are going to be welcome,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cGetting back, though, is going to be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n And an issue that may not need forcing. In November,\u00a0Michigan<\/a>\u00a0voters are likely to approve statewide marijuana legalization. Though it may be months or a year or more before recreational cannabis stores open in the state \u2014 given the myriad difficulties medical cannabis dispensaries have dealt with \u2014 it will only be a matter of time. And that\u2019s time best spent not in the care of U.S. border officials.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you ever partaken in cannabis tourism?<\/p>\n The post How will the U.S. Border Patrol Treat American Marijuana Tourists?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Only northerners will know, but Canada has been a popular party destination for several generations of young Americans. Ever since the mid-1980s, when the last few U.S. states raised the drinking age to 21 years old, Canada has had an obvious allure for thirsty-but-frustrated college-age adults living in college-heavy placesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4948,34,50,4949,96,90,4950],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27842,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27841\/revisions\/27842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: How will the U.S. Border Patrol Treat American Marijuana Tourists?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"