WASHINGTON—Canadians will be barred from entering the United States for smoking marijuana legally, for working in Canada’s legal marijuana industry and for investing in legal Canadian marijuana companies, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official says.
Owen said border officers will not begin asking every Canadian about their marijuana use.
Owen’s comments corroborated anecdotal reports that have accumulated over the course of the year.
“We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” said Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the office of field operations.
Owen did not specify how much equity a Canadian has to hold in a cannabis company to be denied entry.
Scott Bernstein, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, said he is troubled by the lack of clarity.
While nine states and Washington, D.C. now allow the recreational use of marijuana, the U.S. federal government continues to consider it illegal. »
