Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry to US Over 21-Year-Old Drug Conviction

[ellisonz]

Feature: Canadian Mom Searching for Missing Daughter Denied Entry to US Over 21-Year-Old Drug Conviction
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from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #489, 6/8/07

Glendene Grant, a 49-year-old resident of Kamloops, British Columbia, never had any interest in visiting the United States. That changed a little more than a year ago, when her daughter, then 21-year-old Jessie Foster went missing in Las Vegas in March 2006. Since then, she has made three trips to the US to talk with investigators and publicize her daughter's case on TV talk shows.

Jessie Foster traveled to Las Vegas in 2005, and became a prostitute working for an escort service -- a fact her mother did not know until she began investigating her disappearance. For more than a year, there has been no sign of her. Her case had been declared "cold" by the North Las Vegas Police Department, but on the suggestion of a US journalist, Grant contacted a new unit in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department dedicated to human trafficking cases, the ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery). ATLAS agreed to take on the Foster case, saying it had the earmarks of a sex slavery case.

Grant was set to travel to Las Vegas again last week to meet with investigators and local media about the case, but this time she was turned back by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Vancouver airport. The reason? She had a 1986 conviction for marijuana and cocaine possession.

As Drug War Chronicle reported just two weeks ago, both the US and Canada bar people who admit past drug use or have drug convictions from entering the country. Glendene Grant found that out the hard way, and she can't believe her ancient conviction even matters.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/489/canadian_mom_with_missing_daughter_barred_from_US_by_drug_conviction

[madrchsod]

1. "the war on drugs"

is there another planet where intelligent people can move to?

[ellisonz]

2. I wish.

[Crayson]

3. I like Douglas Adam's idea better...

Tell the idiots (mostly VIP's) there is going to be a destaster they are being evacuated to the moon with priority before the others.

[yes2truth]

4. There must be something else going on that we don't know

If she has already been allowed to enter the United States on three prior occasions, I think using the 1986 conviction was just an excuse to bar her. Maybe she is viewed as a pain in the neck or maybe she has a history of making remarks that certain law enforcement officials consider to be disrespectful. This is only speculation on my part.

The underlying facts point up for the umpteenth million time one more of the endless tragedies caused by criminalizing drugs.

Since it is well known that intellgence agencies in this (and other) countries engage in narcotics trafficking to raise money to fund so-called black operations, maybe we should press our legislators to provide intelligence agencies with budgets that adequate for their lawful purposes and in exchange, bargain for votes by those legislators that might oppose overturning FEDERAL drug laws.