Pubdate: Mon, 04 Feb 2013
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Emily Jackson

DECADES-OLD POT CHARGE KEEPS FAN FROM SUPER BOWL

Contest Winner: Victoria Man Wasn't Able to Cross the U.S. Border 
Thursday Due to a 32-Year-Old Charge for Less Than Two Grams of Cannabis

Myles Wilkinson beat nearly four million fantasy football contestants 
to win a grand prize trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, but a 
decades-old pot possession charge cost him the experience of a lifetime.

Toronto airport customs officials blocked the Victoria resident from 
crossing the border on Thursday due to a 32-year-old charge for less 
than two grams of cannabis.

At the time, a teenaged Wilkinson paid a $50 fine for the two joints 
he took on a camping trip.

"I don't care if you've never smoked pot or even thought of smoking 
pot," he said as he watched the game from Vancouver's Commodore 
ballroom on Sunday at a party thrown by Bud Light Canada, the contest 
sponsor. "It's just stupid to put a 32-year record on someone for 
such a small thing."

This is an "all too common" story, said Dana Larsen, director of the 
Sensible B.C. campaign to hold a referendum on decriminalizing 
cannabis in the province.

"Any kind of possession conviction means a lifetime ban on crossing 
the U.S. border, as well as a permanent stigma," Larsen said, adding 
that someone charged but not convicted can still be refused entry to 
the States.

According to Larsen, possession charges have doubled in B.C. since 
2005 with RCMP charging about 3,800 people in 2011. The only way to 
stop these people from being criminalized for decades is to change 
the, Larsen said.

"If we weren't charging people for cannabis possession, they wouldn't 
get blocked at the border," he said.

Wilkinson, now 51 with three adult daughters, plans to do whatever he 
can to help Larsen's campaign. He's not a big cannabis user, but 
believes it should be legalized and regulated like alcohol, he said 
as he cheered on Baltimore.

While he was shocked and devastated that he couldn't cross the 
border, he hopes his story serves as a lesson to young people to be 
smart about their actions.

Recreational marijuana prohibition is in full force federally in both 
the U.S. and Canada, though Colorado and Washington voted to legalize 
it in November 2012.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom