Superbowl contest winner denied access to US for marijuana use

A man from Vancouver Island has been denied access into the US due to a conviction for possession of two grams of marijuana in 1981. Myles Wilkenson a 50 year old Vancouver Island man had won an all expense paid trip to New Orleans after winning the Bud Light Canada fantasy football contest, over four million participants.

At the age of 19, Wilkinson was picked up and convicted for possession of two grams of marijuana. When he showed up at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, to proceed through US customs,he was denied entry into the US.
Wilkinson said that US customs official had learned of his marijuana conviction in Vancouver in 1981 and told him that he was not allowed to enter the country.
“I had two grams of cannabis. I paid a $50 fine,” Wilkinson said. “I can’t believe that this is happening, for something that happened 32 years ago.”

That hundreds of thousand of Canadian citizens, who have marijuana convictions dating back several years, should be denied access to the US boggles the mind. Two US states, Washington and Colorado recently passed laws that permit recreational marijuana use. Even President Obama has admitted the use of marijuana and cocaine in his book “Dreams of my father.” During an interview with the Herald Tribune, according to the New York Times, Obama also said that he had inhaled, because that was the point.

PHOENIX, Arizona — Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who said Sunday that he was considering running for president in 2008, has created a little sunlight between himself and both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

For one thing, he said, “When I was a kid, I inhaled.”
“That was the point,” Obama told an audience of magazine editors.
Obama had written in his first book, “Dreams From My Father” (1995), before entering politics, that he had used marijuana and cocaine (“maybe a little blow”). He said he had not tried heroin because he did not like the pusher who was trying to sell it to him.
In an interview here at a meeting of the American Society of Magazine Editors, Obama said he was not making light of the subject.

“It was reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teenage boy,” he said. “Teenage boys are frequently confused.”

The US frequently denies access to Canadians which have been convicted for impaired driving, even though this is not a criminal offense in the US. Even if a pardon was obtained for the conviction, the traveler must carry a copy of that pardon.

There is an old saying, “Dear Lord don’t let common sense become so rare that it is mistaken for genius.” In view of what occurs on America’s southern border every day, the measure of denying a man access for a small infraction 32 years ago appears trivial.
Bud Light Canada has invited Wilkinson to its Superbowl party after hearing of the unfortunate situation.

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