IMMIGRATION GOES TO POT

Feds Review Policy On Weed Smokers

To ban or not to ban pot-smoking immigrants from Canada is the heady
question pondered by senior immigration brass in Ottawa.

Immigration officers abroad have written to their masters in Ottawa for
advice on whether to issue visas to Canada-bound immigrants who admit in
interviews they've smoked dope, according to confidential e-mails obtained
by The Toronto Sun through Access to Information.

Top brass were alerted to a recent case in which an applicant abroad
admitted to smoking weed every three months. The visa officer wasn't sure
whether to allow the doper and family into Canada.

The "inhale" question is part of a medical report for Canadian Immigration
form all potential immigrants have to answer at embassies abroad before
they're given visas to come here as immigrants.

"My colleagues are divided as to how this case should be handled,"
immigration medical officer Dr. Neil Heywood told his bosses last year. "The
'doves' feel the occasional use of recreational marijuana does not represent
substance abuse. The 'hawks' feel this disclosure requires investigation."

Officers abroad have been told applicants can be refused if they're habitual
users or addicted to marijuana or other drugs. Immigration officials, citing
a 1990 U.S. survey that said 62.6% of Americans aged 26 to 34 had smoked
pot, said it would be too costly and labour intensive to probe every
dope-smoking person who applied to come here.

But Alliance Party immigration critic Leon Benoit said the dope smokers can
progress to hard drugs and commit crimes once here. "These people are
breaking the law," Benoit said. "I think this is wrong and they shouldn't be
allowed in."

Toronto Police said it's not a crime to admit smoking pot. Federal
immigration spokesman Martin Theriault said anyone can be refused entry if a
visa officer believes they've committed an act that will be punishable in
Canada with a jail sentence of 10 years or more.