Canadian Musician Barred from U.S. for Admitting He Smoked Pot

by Wayne Pac

Canadian songwriter Alan Ranta was traveling to Washington when he was questioned by police officers if he smoked marijuana. When the police asked if he had ever smoked, he told the truth — that he had smoked it regularly. The police then handcuffed Ranta and took him to the PD, then proceeded to interrogate him with many more questions. According to Alan, he was barred from entry into the US over the pot admission, and if he wants to appeal the ban he has to apply for a waiver costing hundreds of dollars. There is no guarantee if he can ever come back to the US.

Obviously, the police are wrong to do this, and this is something that libertarians like myself want to change about our current law enforcement system. Most LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) I have personally spoken to do not condone these sorts of things happening. At the end of the day, though, they have to follow the job description. LEOs don’t write the laws; they enforce them.

I could go on a rant about this, and how we should solve this. At the end of the day, stupid things like this happening are a fact of life. The best we can do as libertarians is keep pushing inch by inch, to help correct the wrong things about our legislation. Go out and vote your conscience. Support the people you want for office at local state and county levels, vote them in, and hopefully they keep their promises that they made to their constituents and change things such as drug laws for the better.