A B.C man has been banned from the United States for life and said he would likely have to fold his cross-border business after a random search found he attempted to enter the U.S with a bottle of CBD oil in his car.
Jonathan Houweling, who owns an events company that works with Christmas festivals in the U.S, was chosen for a random search on November 7 while crossing the Peace Arch border in Surrey, British Columbia, where border patrol agents found a bottle of cannabidiol oil in the center console, which Houweling said he had put in there in 2019 and forgot about it.
Houweling said he was detained at the border for hours, where he was fingerprinted, DNA swabbed and fined $500 USD. He has since applied and paid $585 for an entry waiver for people who are inadmissible although the waivers are temporary and don’t offer any guarantee that it will be approved.
“I simply can’t see a way to make it work in the future if I can’t be there in person. It would have to fold,” Houweling said, adding his clients “can’t associate a family-friendly oriented Christmas festival with someone like myself who has this lifetime ban.”
In a statement, Rhona Lawson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) said it enforces the laws of the U.S. and will not change after Canada’s legalization of cannabis.
In 2019, a woman received a lifetime ban from the U.S. after she was found with CBD oil in her possession while trying to cross the border into Washington, a U.S state with legal recreational cannabis. The woman, who said she uses CBD to manage the pain and other side effects from scoliosis, eventually had her lifetime ban reversed, though that is not always the case. A spokesperson for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said all cases in which travelers are deemed inadmissible are automatically reviewed.
In October 2022 as travel restrictions eased, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) issued a reminder to Canadians and other travelers to not cross the border with cannabis, whether coming in or going out of the country. Federal officers have said smaller infractions like unintended smuggling happen because people have cannabis in their cars and forget about it, which could result in serious charges as U.S Customs and Border Protection default to federal law.
Last year, the CBSA set new penalties for those caught with cannabis, announcing it would begin with monetary penalties for travelers who fail to declare cannabis products when crossing the border, with additional penalties such as imprisonment or a court fine depending on the seriousness of the nature of the offense.
A press release from the CBSA reported in August it had seized approximately 1,305 pounds of cannabis during a search in May and another 661 pounds in June, resulting in a total of almost 2,000 pounds of cannabis across the two seizures at the border. The Canada Cannabis Act allows licensed parties to import or export cannabis in Canada and only for medical or scientific purposes, and each individual shipment requires a permit with each permit being approved on a case-by-case basis.
“Regardless of the mode of entry (air, marine, land, rail), it is illegal to bring cannabis (and cannabis products) into or out of Canada without a valid Health Canada permit or exemption,” the agency said in the release. “CBSA officers have the authority to examine in-bound shipments as well as goods for export. Personal, mail, courier, and commercial shipments are subject to the Customs Act and may be examined for prohibited goods, including cannabis and cannabis products. Avoid seizures, fines or arrest: Don’t bring it into Canada. Don’t take it out of Canada.”
