More than 150,000 Canadians who either invest in marijuana companies or who could get a job working for one could be labelled drug traffickers and risk a lifetime ban of travelling to the United States.
Todd Owen of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency told Politico online news last month that: “If you work for the industry, that is grounds for inadmissibility.”
Jay Evans, CEO of B.C.-based ag equipment manufacturer Kierton Inc., was given a lifetime ban as his company was looking at possibly designing a machine to harvest pot, the Toronto Star reported earlier this year.
Even investors wouldn’t be immune. In May, Vancouver venture capitalist Sam Znaimer was handed a lifetime ban after border agents learned he had invested in U.S. cannabis start-up companies years ago, CTV News reported this summer.
Although smoking marijuana is legal in nine states — including Colorado, California, Nevada and Washington State — it is still illegal federally, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency is a federal agency.
Consulting firm Deloitte Canada released a report earlier this year that said 150,000 cannabis-related jobs will be created with legislation that will make selling marijuana legal on Oct. 17.
