Entering USA from Canada

[ginolicious]

Well it has now begun. It is becoming a huge issue for Canadians to enter the States with legalization.

Credit card data is held in the states. Canadians are not Americans and therefore the US can access that data without a warrant. If they see a purchase from a cannabis store you may be subject to a lifetime ban apparently. Some provinces have circumvented this by not displaying the actual store. For example in Nova Scotia they sell the product at NSLC which is the liquor commission of Nova Scotia. Therefore if they run your credit card they will not know. Residents in Sask are getting slammed. Admitting to use even 30 years ago will give you a ban. Border guards are lying saying they can drug test you, detain you indefinitely or give a lie detector test if you do not answer their pot questions. Legally, they cannot.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/estevan-cannabis-smoke-border-u-s-1.4883091

 

[Ramahs]

That's some bullshit.

 

[Jill NYC]

Well it has now begun. It is becoming a huge issue for Canadians to enter the States with legalization.

Credit card data is held in the states. Canadians are not Americans and therefore the US can access that data without a warrant. If they see a purchase from a cannabis store you may be subject to a lifetime ban apparently. Some provinces have circumvented this by not displaying the actual store. For example in Nova Scotia they sell the product at NSLC which is the liquor commission of Nova Scotia. Therefore if they run your credit card they will not know. Residents in Sask are getting slammed. Admitting to use even 30 years ago will give you a ban. Border guards are lying saying they can drug test you, detain you indefinitely or give a lie detector test if you do not answer their pot questions. Legally, they cannot.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/estevan-cannabis-smoke-border-u-s-1.4883091

Such complete and utter bullshit. (The laws and how we (USA) is handling it, not you!)
I am not sure what we are supposed to be gaining from this other than:
a) less transparency at the border
b) less tourism/$$ in the US

@ginolicious - Good info for all to know.

 

[ginolicious]

I think it’s funny in a very bad way. So now the USA is going to lose out on Canadian money.

I’m now super pissed. I have to go down this weekend. I’m going to answer all questions and always say no to pot. But if they have my credit card data then I’m fucked. Get a lifetime ban for lying. But if I agree to smoking pot, get a lifetime ban. I cannot win.

I find it disgusting that they can access our data without a warrant, simply because our credit card data is stored in the USA and no warrant needed cause we are not US citizens. Seems like a huge breach of privacy. It’s disgusting.

What I do in my country is my countries business not yours. If it’s legal in mine, I have broken no law. If I bring it into yours or smoke down in your country, then yes, I have broken federal law. But I have done no such act.

 

[just_the_flu]

...scare tactic imo... i cant see them checking everyone's credit card history... and even if they do it only shows them who has bought pot with a credit card... and all our vape gear... only online purchases i've done was through MoM's and they only accept bank transfers...


...the thing they should probably be concerned about instead, is the americans coming to canada to get high and not canadians going to spend money in america ...

 

[GreenDragon]

They're changing the signs at U.S. entry points.
Old sign - 'Welcome To The United States Of America'
New sign - 'Now entering Trump 'Merica. If you're brown, TURN AROUND. GTFO!'

Note: capitalized trump only for mocking purposes. I would never give that weeping carbuncle the respect of capitslizing it's name.

 

[EconMan]

Well it has now begun. It is becoming a huge issue for Canadians to enter the States with legalization.

Credit card data is held in the states.

Sort of. I run a payments company and I have many canadian clients including cannabis merchants.
There is no place in the USA where MJ and related is legal. It is illegal everywhere in the US. Schedule I drug, "states rights" issues notwithstanding. The Anti Drug Abuse act of 1988 require a bank and merchant that does ANY business with the Federal government to certify itself as "drug-free workplace" and to abide by the financial warfare of the "war on drugs" as it came to be called. So even though Canadian banks are not subject LEGALLY to US law, they are so codependent with the US financial system, they have no choice but to abide. This is why no significant canadian bank has EVER done a cannabis merchant account -- they are mostly US companies like mine. Banks are very paranoid, which is why it's so darn hard to get a merchant account with Cannabis. This includes the Canadian banks.

Card data is held on the "payment gateways" and the physical location of the ones most people actually us is indeed in the USA. Because of the various anti-terrorism and anti-money-laundering legislation (lots of it), the US Feds can see all your purchases, if they want to, without a warrant.

I travel to Canada regularly on business, as I have many clients there, but my advice to ANY Canadian traveling to the US is to LIE. You have NEVER even tried weed, you are NOT in ANY way involved in the BUSINESS of marijuana. I am also an adjunct professor, and a canadian academic friend was just prevented entry and banned permanently from the US! His crime? He was traveling to a academic conference where he was to present an economics paper on the high cost of the war on drugs, and that it was time for full legalization. He made chit-chat with them at immigration, they asked to see the paper, and when they saw its title they banned him.
Fortunately, I'm a citizen, they can't ban me... well not yet.

 

[EEK]

Just come in through the Mexico border youlyo be fine

 

[hans solo]

As a Canadian I can travel in my country by air carrying 30 grams and my vape.
And the international airport I disembark from says it’s ok to get faded at any designated smoking area.
Sweet!

 

[EconMan]

As a Canadian I can travel in my country by air carrying 30 grams and my vape.
And the international airport I disembark from says it’s ok to get faded at any designated smoking area.
Sweet!

How cool. Would love that. Having flown a couple million miles, I would much rather deal with high passengers than drunk ones.