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Queries about prior marijuana use will not be “routinely” asked of travellers, he said, but depending on answers given to routine questions, a person’s pot past could be raised. And “admission of illegal drug use is grounds for not being allowed into the U.S.,” he added.

Owen said “other indicators” could also trigger those types of questions, although he wouldn’t elaborate. Border agents, he said, have “wide discretion” in how they grill potential visitors.

Pot might be legal across Canada and in a growing number of states, but if you forget you have any on yourself or in your vehicle while trying to visit the U.S., and it’s detected at the border, it could lead to your arrest, prosecution and a US$5,000 fine for a possession conviction, said Owen.

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“Canadians who wish to enter the United States or any other country have to adhere to its laws,” Bill Blair, Canada’s Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, said in an email statement to the Windsor Star.

Blair said Ottawa was “thankful” for the Americans’ recent “clarification” on what Canadian travellers might expect at the border after Oct. 17. He said the federal government was advised that there was “no plan on changing their questions at primary inspection … however, if a traveller gives them reason to be suspicious, their officers may ask further questions.”

It was only in late September that the Americans issued an official statement on how Canadians can expect to be treated at the border. And it was just last week that the statement was tweaked to get rid of an outright travel ban to the U.S. for any Canadian working in the cannabis industry, a move that would have barred thousands of residents in Windsor and Essex County from attending a Wings or Tigers game or visiting Detroit.