Topic
BC psychotherapist denied entry after border guard googled his work.
Andrew Feldmar. Photo by C. Grabowski.
Andrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and googled "Andrew Feldmar."
The psychotherapist's world was about to turn upside down.
Born in Hungary to Jewish parents as the Nazis were rising to power, Feldmar was hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust when he was three years old, after his parents were condemned to Auschwitz. Miraculously, his parents both returned alive and in 1945 Hungary was liberated by the Russian army. Feldmar escaped from communist Hungary in 1956 when he was 16 and immigrated to Canada. He has been married to Meredith Feldmar, an artist, for 37 years, and they live in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. They have two children, Soma, 33, who lives in Denver, and Marcel, 36, a resident of L.A. Highly respected in his field, Feldmar has been travelling to the U.S. for work and to see his family five or six times a year. He has worked for the UN, in Sarajevo and in Minsk with Chernobyl victims.
The Blaine border guard explained that Feldmar had been pulled out of the line as part of a random search. He seemed friendly, even as he took away Feldmar's passport and car keys. While the contents of his car were being searched, Feldmar and the officer talked. He asked Feldmar what profession he was in.
When Feldmar said he was psychologist, the official typed his name into his Internet search engine. Before long the customs guard was engrossed in an article Feldmar had published in the spring 2001 issue of the journal Janus Head. The article concerned an acid trip Feldmar had taken in London, Ontario, and another in London, England, almost forty years ago. It also alluded to the fact that he had used hallucinogenics as a "path" to understanding self and that in certain cases, he reflected, it could "be preferable to psychiatry." Everything seemed to collapse around him, as a quiet day crossing the border began to turn into a nightmare.
Fingerprints for FBI
He was told to sit down on a folding chair and for hours he wondered where this was going. He checked his watch and thought hopelessly of his friend who was about to land at the Seattle airport. Three hours later, the official motioned him into a small, barren room with an American flag. He was sitting on one side and Feldmar was on the other. The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to "narcotics" use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn't interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file.
Then Feldmar disbelievingly listened as he learned that he was being barred from ever entering the United States again. The officer told him he could apply to the Department of Homeland Security for a waiver, if he wished, and gave him a package, with the forms.
The border guard then escorted him to his car and made sure he did a U-turn and went back to Canada.
'Curious. Very curious'
Feldmar attended the University of Toronto where he graduated with honours in mathematics, physics and chemistry. He received his M.A. in psychology from the University of Western Ontario. At University of Western Ontario, he was under supervision with Zenon Pylyshyn, who was from Saskatchewan and had participated, along with Abram Hoffer and Duncan Blewett, in the first experiments with LSD-25.
"Zenon told me he had had enough strange experiences, that he had gone about as far with LSD as he wished to go. He still had what was once legal.... Looking back 33 years, I don't quite recall why I decided to accept his tentative offer. I was 27 years old and thought of myself as a rational scientist, and had no experience with delirium, hallucination, or altered mind states. I was curious. Very curious. I thought that, like Faust, I might make a pact with the devil in return for esoteric knowledge."
Zenon gave him 900 micrograms of acid and the surprise of his life, he wrote in the Janus Head article. "Following this initiation, I traveled to many regions many times with the help of many different substances. I took peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, cannabis, MDMA, DMT, ketamine, nitrous oxide 5-MEO-DMT, but I kept coming back to LSD. Acid seemed my most spacious, most helpful ally. While on it, I explored my past, regressed to the womb, to my conception. I remembered, grieved, and mourned many painful events. I saw how my parents would have liked to love me, and how they didn't because they didn't know how. I learned, on acid, to endure troubling and frightening states of mind. This enabled me, as meditation has done, to identify with being the witness of the workings of my mind, observing whatever was going on, while knowing that I was simply captivated by the forms produced by my own psyche."
After receiving his MA, Feldmar spent a semester in the U.S. at the Johns Hopkins University's Ph.D. program in theoretical statistics. In 1969, he began Ph.D. work with Dr. Charles Osgood in psycholinguistics at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana. He did further Ph.D. studies at Simon Fraser University.
Legal options expensive
Feldmar was determined, in the months after the aborted border crossing, to turn things around. He was particularly determined because the idea of not being able to visit his children at their homes was unthinkable.
He contacted the U.S. Consul in Vancouver to protest and was again told to apply for a waiver. When he consulted Seattle attorney Bob Free at MacDonald, Hoague and Bayless about going through this process, he learned that for $3,500 (U.S.) plus incidentals, he'd have a 90 per cent chance to get the waiver, but it would probably be just for a year, and the procedure would have to be initiated again, any time he wished to cross the border. Each time, he would have to produce a statement saying that he had been "rehabilitated."
He looked into filing suit against the U.S. government for wrongdoing but gave up the idea when he learned that a legal battle with U.S. Customs would cost his life's savings and, with the balance of power tipped so extremely in the government's favor, he would almost surely lose.
Again, he appealed to the U.S. Consulate. The consulate wouldn't return his phone calls, but in this e-mail message to Feldmar, the consulate explained its position.
"Both our countries have very similar regulations regarding issuance of visas for citizens who have violated the law. The issue here is not the writing of an article, but the taking of controlled substances. I hear from American citizens all the time who have decades-old DUI convictions who are barred from entry into Canada and who must apply for waivers. Same thing here. Waiver is the only way."
Ensnared by Section IV
"Admitted drug use is admitted drug use," says Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. border and protection, based in Seattle. Milne said he could not comment specifically on the Feldmar case, due to privacy issues, but he quoted from the U.S. Immigration Law Handbook section which refers to "general classes of aliens ineligible to receive visas and ineligible for admissions" to help shed light on the clauses that may have ensnared the Vancouver psychotherapist.
"Persons with AIDS, tuberculosis, infectious diseases are inadmissible," Milne said. And then there is Section IV. "Anyone who is determined to be a drug abuser or user is inadmissible. A crime involving moral turpitude is inadmissible and one of those areas is a violation of controlled substances."
If there's no criminal record, as in Feldmar's case?
Not necessarily the criterion, Milne said. You can still be considered dangerous.
'More diligent and vigilant'
"The level of scrutiny at our nation's borders have definitely gone up since the 9-11 disaster and we are more diligent and vigilant in checking people's identities and criminal histories at our nation's borders."
Milne goes on, "There are three main areas that we have employed since 9-11 to better secure our borders. First is the number of officers we have working at our borders. We've doubled the numbers at the border. We've combined officers from Homeland Security and border protection. We brought in the officers from immigration and naturalization service, the department of agriculture and U.S. border patrol. By combining the expertise of those disparate border agencies into a single agency under a single management with the single purpose of protecting the U.S. against terrorism and other related offences, it created a more effective border agency. It created a more secure border.
"The second thing would be our information systems, our watch list systems are better shared within the U.S. government and between governments, between information sharing agreements, through Interpol, through terrorist watch list sharing internationally, we have better access for our front line officers to query information systems up to and including public based systems, including the Internet. Third, we have better infrastructure at our entries. We have cameras in some of our more remote points of entry, gates, lighting, to make them more secure. We do more checks at the borders. It depends on what level of alert we're at. At certain alert levels we do 100 per cent identity checks."
War on drugs meets war on terror
Eugene Oscapella is an Ottawa lawyer, who lectures on drug policy issues in the department of criminology at the University of Ottawa. He also works as a policy advisor to a range of government agencies and departments, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Oscapella sees the American security system upgrades and the potential uses alarming.
"This is about the marriage of the war on drugs and the war on terror, and the blind, bureaucratic mindset it encourages. Government surveillance in the name of the war on drugs and the war on terror is in danger of making us all open books to zealous governments. As someone mentioned at a privacy conference I attended in London, U.K., several months ago, all the tools for an authoritarian state are now in place; it's just that we haven't yet adopted authoritarian methods. But in the area of drugs, maybe we have."
'Ominous omen'
Feldmar was in the process of considering whether to apply for a waiver when he sought help from Ethan Nadlemann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, whose financial backer is another Hungarian, George Soros.
Nadlemann was outraged. "Nobel Peace prize winners, some of the great scientists and writers in the world have experimented with LSD in their time. We know people are being pulled out of lines and racially profiled as part of the war against terrorism. But this is a different kind of travesty, banning someone because they used a substance in another country thirty years ago," he said.
In February he wrote Feldmar, "Not that it helps much, but I just want you to know that I have not forgotten you or your situation. I feel frustrated vis a vis the media, and on other avenues, but I am not forgetting. I really think this situation is absurd, and an ominous omen of things to come."
When Feldmar was barred from entering the U.S., he joined the ranks of other intellectuals and artists. Pop singer Cat Stevens was turned back from the U.S. in 2004, after being detained. Bolivian human rights leader and lawyer, Leonida Zurita Vargas was prevented from entering in February of 2006. She was planning to be in the U.S. as part of a three week speaking tour on Bolivian social movements and human rights. The tour would have taken her to Vermont, Harvard, Stanford and Washington D.C., but she never got beyond the airport check-in at Santa Cruz, Bolivia where she was informed her ten-year visa had been revoked because of alleged links to terrorist activity.
'Ideological exclusion provision'
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied Professor John Milios entry into the country upon his arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport last June. Milios, a faculty member at the National Technical University of Athens, had planned to present a paper at a conference titled "How Class Works" at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Milios told Academe Online that U.S. officials questioned him at the airport about his political ideas and affiliations and that the American consul in Athens later queried him about the same subjects. Milios, a member of a left-wing political party, is active in Greek national politics and has twice been a candidate for the Greek parliament. Milios's visa, issued in 1996, was set to expire in November. The professor had previously been allowed entry into the United States on five separate occasions to participate in academic meetings.
The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center, filed a lawsuit this year challenging a provision of the Patriot Act that is being used to deny visas to foreign scholars. They did this after Professor Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual, had his visa revoked under "the ideological exclusion provision" of the Patriot Act, preventing him from assuming a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame. It's a suit that attempts to prevent the practice of ideological exclusion more generally, a practice that led to the recent exclusions of Dora Maria Tellez, a Nicaraguan scholar who had been offered a position at Harvard University, as well as numerous scholars from Cuba.
In March 2005, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about the government's use of the Patriot Act ideological exclusion provision. Cuban Grammy nominee Ibrahim Ferrer, 77, who came to fame in the 1999 film Buena Vista Social Club, was blocked by the U.S. government from attending the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for the Best Latin album award in 2004. So were his fellow musicians Guillermo Rubalcaba, Amadito Valdes, Barbarito Torres and the group Septeto Nacional with Ignacio Pineiro. The list goes on.
Cut off from friends
Nine months after being turned back at the border, Feldmar has concluded that his banishment is permanent. The waiver process is exhausting, costly and demeaning. The David and Goliath aspect of the situation is too daunting.
This is devastating to his family and friends. "My father was doing nothing wrong, illegal, suspicious, or at all deviant in any way, when he was trying to visit the U.S.," his daughter, Soma, an instructor at a Denver college, says. "In terms of family it really sucks. "
It's hard for his friend, Alphonso Lingis, a professor of philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. "I'm deeply pained by the prospect of no longer being able to welcome him in the United States," Lingis said. "The notion that he and his work could harm anyone is preposterous. He's a victim of scandalous bureaucratic incompetence by the United States officials involved in this matter."
'Alchemist's dictum'
When Feldmar looks back on what has happened, he concludes that he was operating out of a sense of safety that has become dated in the last six years, since 9-11. His real mistake was to write about his drug experiences and post this on the web, even in a respected journal like Janus Head. He acknowledges that he had not considered posting on the Internet the risk that it turned out to be. So many of his generation share his experience in experimenting with drugs, after all. He believed it was safe to communicate about the past from the depth of retrospection and that this would be a useful grain of personal wisdom to share with others. He now warns his friends to think twice before they post anything about their personal lives on the web.
"I didn't heed the ancient Alchemists' dictum, 'Do, dare, and be silent,'" Feldmar says. "And yet, the experience of being treated as undesirable was shocking. The helplessness, the utter uselessness of trying to be seen as I know myself and as I am known generally by those I care about and who care about me, the reduction of me to an undesirable offender, was truly frightening. I became aware of the fragility of my identity, the brittleness of a way of life.
"Memories of having been the object of the objectifying gaze crowd into my mind. I have been seen and labeled as a Jew, as a Communist, as a D. P. (Displaced Person), as a student, as a patient, a man, a Hungarian, a refugee, an émigré, an immigrant.... Now I am being seen as one of those drug users, perhaps an addict, perhaps a dealer, one can't be sure. In the matter of a second, I became powerless, whatever I said wasn't going to be taken seriously. I was labeled, sorted and disposed of. Dismissed."
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bowenmark
6 years ago
train wreck
It's like watching a train wreck with what corporate governance is doing to North America. An amazing sight that you never thought you would see, feel powerless to do anything about, and a terrible tragedy all at the same time.
Gary
6 years ago
Yankee Political Paranoia
It seems that the rules they govern themselves with are selective and self serving. The paranoia in that country is overwhelming.
Alcohol is a drug and it is very addictive so I wonder why anyone who drinks is not banned? Could it be from Brewery Lobbyists. I think so.
Twenty-two years ago, after 3 years of sobriety and numerous DWI convictions I decided to enter the U.S. to do some shopping. I took my own vehicle, where on previous occasions we had used my girlfriends. I was asked how long I had been crossing the border and told them, 26 years. I was directed to park my vehicle and go inside. After sitting for over 1-1/2 hrs. I was directed to another room where I was subjected to a full body cavity search then released and told to return to Canada.
I have never even attempted to cross that border to this day. Further I boycott all US products that I possibly can.
I have a friend who is a Canadian that lived in the states for 30 years and she felt the paranoid pressure. She had seperated from her husband and returned to Canada and when she crossed the 49th parallel she says she could actually feel the pressure release.
divadab
6 years ago
They're Out of Control
The lunatics have taken over the asylum. The worst authoritarian elements in American society are in positions of unassailable power. And the folks at the Blaine Peace Arch Crossing are among the worst, in my experience, combining stupidity, ignorance, petty abuse of authority, hostility, suspicion, and sheer meanness.
The spectacle of some middle class family from Portland returning from vacation in BC being interrogated with disrespect by some jumped up brownshirt is sad, sick, and infuriating.
And foreigners are treated much much worse. This is now the public face the USA shows to the world - paranoid, hostile, unutterably ignorant, and implacable in abusing petty authority.
Gary
6 years ago
And another thought.....
just occurred to me. Marc Emery is up for extradition and it is well known that he smokes the leaf. Do you think they will bar him. I think not. They want a high profile target. The utter hyprocracy of this type of thinking abhors me.
DenisB
6 years ago
Good thing clinton never
Good thing clinton never inhaled.
This probably bars most Canadian citizens from entering the US legaly. Maybe if Canadians just stopped crossing they might lighten up?
Chris H
6 years ago
unbelievable ...
It seems the US is more scared of "ideas" and "scholarship" then they are of drugs. How close are they to a theocracy? I'm surprised you don't have to pledge allegence to the flag yet.
MyBrainIsOnFire
6 years ago
hmmm perhaps my unabashed support of USA
needs a little examining...the feds in the USA have gone nuts.
duck404
6 years ago
THE PENDULUM SWINGS BOTH WAYS
You know, I might have a grain of sympathy for this guy but I don't. Why, mostly because, as pointed out, Canada has a similarly idiotic law which forbids US citizens with DUI convictions from entering Canada. It's not a 100% identical situation, but close enough for my tastes.
Secondly, this guy admitted publicly to taking all of those drugs. Many people have experimented with drugs for one reason or another in their lives. But most are smart enough not to tell everyone on the planet. Duh.
Next, does he think that his consumption of drugs (which looks like a heck of a laundry list to me) under "intellectual" premises makes him any better than anyone else who takes these drugs? It sounds to melike his article could've also been published in High Times magazine. Just because he thinks he's an intellectual does not excuse his behavior.
Thirdly, although some might think that he has some sort of "right" to enter the US for some reason, he DOESN'T. He's not an Amercian citizen. The US has the right to determine who can enter the country, just like Canada and every other nation. (Yes, I still think the DUI thing is ridiculous but at the same time I respect the Canadian government's authority to determine who can enter their country.)
Finally, if he wants to get into the US badly enough, as pointed out in the article, there ARE avenues for him to pursue. HE has decided that it's not worth his time, effort or money.
Bottom line: Actions have consequences. Whether it be drinking and driving or publishing your drug consumption history on the Internet.
And for you Canadians who make a hobby out of criticizaing ths US: I suggest that you look in your own backyard before throwing stones at the US.
FYI: I'm an American who really loves Canada AND Canadians - it's just the snotty holier-than-thou of you that I have a distaste for.
DPL
6 years ago
If my memory serves me,
If my memory serves me, George Bush was onto some drugs years ago. Does that mean he can't enter canada? Or for that matter since our premier was convicted of Driving while drunk does that mean he can't go to the states? The professor has a long career yet nobody down south of the 49th have the smarts to notice his training.
duck404
6 years ago
Gary: I boycott all US products that I possibly can.
How's that working out for you? We dom't seem to be feeling the impact of your boycott down here. :-)
doggone
6 years ago
prediction:
Authoritarian states will ossify as they revel in their growing power. Anyone with aspiration to "free expression" will flee or keep their head down.
"Mom and Apple Pie" happy little suburbs will spy on each other for any "odd" ideas or behaviour.
Radical (read: interesting) ideas will seep away from the internet - leaving nothing but the pop up ads, sports, shock crime headlines and child porn.
Not to worry: there is a Rough Beast still Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born
PB1
6 years ago
waiver self application
Just as an aside, an individual can apply on his/her own for a waiver. The only costs are the RCMP fingerprint check and the fees from Homeland Security, which are a few hundred bucks. The applicant also has to travel to a border post to be fingerprinted by US Customs staff. The whole thing takes at least a year.
doggone
6 years ago
37
The way to use life is to do nothing through acting,
The way to use life is to do everything through being,
When a leader knows this,
His land naturally goes straight.
And the world's passion to stay from straightness
Is checked at the core
bBy the simple unnamable cleanness
Through which men cease from coveting,
And to a land where men cease from coveting
Peace comes of course.
Lao Tzu, "The Way Of Life"
Translated by Witter Bynner
clo3
6 years ago
Don't like the US? Stay home!
Duck 404, I completely agree with you. Though we sometimes forget that Canadians are not inherently entitled to US entry (likely because we’ve been able to get in so easily for years), that is the case. While the provisions of the Patriot Act scare me and should cause great concern for our American friends, the reality is that the US is not our country and we have as little right to make demands of their government as they have to make demands of ours.
doggone
6 years ago
The interesting part of the article
Regarding the use of LSD25:
900 mikes???
Wow!
At the risk of being barred from the border I gotta say that 600 was more than enough for me. It took me about 3 months to straighten out enough to communicate normally with people who cared about me and I have yet to recover the comfortable blinders that are so handy in this world.
Those who know know. Those who don't know
Legislate
clubofrome
6 years ago
Can't wait!
I wonder what a Harper majority would look like? Hmmm, more jail time for pot possesion. Maybe we could even build more prisons, private of course, for dopers only. You wouldn't need many guards, things would be pretty laid back. Just think of the positive benefits to society not having these criminals amoung us. We should thank these ever vigilant, progressive thinking border guards with their unlimited powers! They would never abuse their positions for personal bias. These border defenders must be selected from many qualified candidates I'm sure, as the role calls for someone who can detect the smallest sign of past indescretion. This case is a prime example! With a history of crossing the border many times and having never been suspected or guilty of anything other than visiting friends and family, it was just too neat! This border guard was onto him! What brilliant work using google to check for this doctors past written admission to using drugs 30 years before. Sherlock Holmes material! Now the threat has been contained. America safe once again from this man who once experimented with drugs! It's not like he was importing raw materials like those required to make drugs in the US, that would be under free trade and is welcomed. The manufacture of crystal meth is encouraged in the states isn't it? I mean they could have controlled the trade by banning the ingrdient used in over the counter products like sudafed. Effedrine or something like that, is manufactued in two places and they could have shut it down. But the bill was rejected by whoever makes these smart decisions. Must be a panel of retired border guards who advise on such things, in between giving courses on field stripping and cleaning their guns. We have a long way to go to catch up to the Americans in law enforcement, especially if we are only banning their DUI convictions. We must hurry and elect a majority Harper government so we can start banning for all suspected atrocities like drugs, same sex unions and other deviant behavior. Books too, many books written today have opinions that don't follow the party line. Don't allow Canadians to think for themselves, vote for a Harper Majority!
clubofrome
6 years ago
Just stay home!
clo3, I totally and completely agree with you agreeing completely with duck 404. Who are we, citizens of one nation to think that we can just go where ever we want to at any time, especially a country we share a 10,000 km border with, that is like right next to us. I mean duh, there should be a wall or something like the one they have keeping the Mexicans out. It's like a totally different county, with like different laws I bet. We should respect that or not even like go there. Duh....
clo3
6 years ago
Clubofrome
My point exactly Clubofrome.
Bluenose
6 years ago
Insane
Actually, he's a victim of professional lunatics. These people are insane. Completely, invincibly insane.
southdeltawalker
6 years ago
get over it......
The good professor is no victim. He is a survivor. He has a home, family, friends, respect, career and lives in Canada!
It's not a great world ..there are injustices everywhere. I have worked with torture victims....those who were labelled as dissendents and tortured due to American foreign policy interference in their countries i.e. Chileans {remember the American financed coup against their democratically elected Gov't} and Central Americans.
His family and friends can visit him here....big deal.
clubofrome
6 years ago
clo3
Do you think we should aspire to more American style security or follow the European example where travel is concerned?
I bet that say with a 25 year old possesion of marijuana, conviction, I could travel through Europe undetected! That's just insane to let something like that happen here! Reefer madness I say!
flattax
6 years ago
Being a psychotherapist does not excuse him
edited for libel -- Tyee editor
dr evil
6 years ago
undesirable alien
I was busted for possession of grass in 1961
I`m classified "undesirable alien" and not allowed entry into the U.S.
I kind of like the title...don`t want to go there anyway.
Tried to go ashore in `Frisco in 1969 working on a Norwegian freighter..not allowed..they had record of it..
I could be pulled over on a routine traffic check and the record would be right there on the ole computer.
Awhile back a dude with similar circumstances to mine..lived near the border..he crossed the border after work to pick up a few groceries..routine check..bingo..two weeks in the hoosegow before he was sprung..possession of weed several years before..
Don`t want to go there.
clo3
6 years ago
Clubofrome
I think it couldn’t hurt to beef up our border security, although I don’t think men who did LSD 30 years ago are the people we need to keep out. The European model works in Europe because all the countries there agree to it. The US doesn’t think Canada’s borders are secure (and they are largely right), so they would never agree to make North American travel the same as European travel.
I think that there are ridiculous security measures in the US and I hope that Canada doesn’t ever succumb to that same culture of fear, but like it or not, America is free to do whatever it feels is in its best interests. If you want to go there, you have to play by their rules, not ours.
thomas49
6 years ago
cavity searches ?????????????
geeeeez...ya wonder why these guys like doing these searches ...SO MUCH !!!
typical,lunatics running the asylum as a previous poster stated.
and for the DOLTS in the crowd...LSD was not illegal in CANADA ,til 1974 ,i believe it was ??? maybe out a year or two,but when i was going to university IN CAMBRIDGE,IT WAS STILL LEGAL IN ENGLAND AS WELL,that was 70/71...
and ,i gotta say,peyote is also a religous component in some tribes in the southern/western states...so,talk about narrow minded morons...what happens when first nations shamans leave the country???
OY VEY!!! WHAT A BUNCH !!!
doggone
6 years ago
you never know
Could be some posters have a tongue in cheek.
I don't get that sense from Flattax.
Reality must be very clear and straightforward for some people.
Enjoy your fantasy while it lasts - remember the "Red Queen" in "Alice in Wonderland"?
"In this country it takes as much running as you can do to stay in the same place"
doggone
6 years ago
you never know
Could be some posters have a tongue in cheek.
I don't get that sense from Flattax.
Reality must be very clear and straightforward for some people.
Enjoy your fantasy while it lasts - remember the "Red Queen" in "Alice in Wonderland"?
"In this country it takes as much running as you can do to stay in the same place"
clubofrome
6 years ago
Hope
Well clo3, I guess well just have to cross our fingers and hope the reign of the fascist bastards running the US right now, one day soon comes to an end. Then maybe we can all travel the earth without fear of terrorists seeking revenge against the biggest bully ever, the US. Anyone else trying to justify the actions of US perhaps can explain why the war on drugs doesn't work either. Please tell us why spending trillions of dollars isn't working to stop drugs. I wonder if the Homeland Security Department is just a shell for diverting money into the US war machine? Hmmm? Fuck some people are dumb...
Bluenose
6 years ago
Quote:Andrew Feldmar is/was
edited for libel -- Tyee editor
Bullgoose
6 years ago
As people are starting to
As people are starting to point out, it is precisely those who are NOT critical of the US as it slides into darkness and fascism, who are truly "anti-American."
demotto
6 years ago
US drug war ipocrisy
http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/essays/e6.htm
The CIA is the biggest drug smuggler in the US and is known to be so but are allowed to continue with impunity
Bobb999
6 years ago
Post-Bush : No Improvement in sight
Many folks hope and believe U.S. gov't abuses of human rights will change for the better once the hated Bush leaves office, and saviour Democrats take the White House, the House, and Senate in '08, restoring sanity to the land!
Dream on...The Democrats are abandoning any push for serious gun law reform, simply because the NRA has such power in election battles, and 'cause gun-fetishism is
such a popular kink among Americans.
Similarly, the necessity for the "war on drugs" has been so successfully drummed into the heads of gullible U.S. voters, that politicians in most states know they risk the hysteria and ire of drug intolerant voters if they dare suggest the drug war isn't working.
The drug war is big business, with powerful monied lobbies ensuring it continues as a make work project for thousands of border
inspectors, cops, corporate prisons, the DEA, prosecutors, and judges.
Drug users must be demonized, otherwise there will be insufficient justification for the lucrative war continuing.
"Land of the free"..."world's greatest democracy"...Catchy advertising Slogans!
Mr. Beer N. Hockey
6 years ago
I stopped going to the
I stopped going to the States way back when Reagan was President. Seemed to me visiting a country with such obvious fascistic tenencies was akin to a Pole visiting Germany in 1937. Visiting the States in 2007 is like visiting Germany in 1941.
adamw
6 years ago
US Sovereignty
I had a mentally ill neighbour once. It was within her rights to get into all sorts of annoying capers on her own property — this, however, did not stop me from using every avenue possible to get that woman behaving normally.
(In the end, I had to sell my house and move elsewhere.)
Grumpy
6 years ago
The excited states
It seems Bin Lauden has won. By flying 3 airplanes into the world Trade Towers and the Pentagon, has turned the USA into a Nazi style armed camp. The homeland security act is nothing more than secret police and foot steps in the night.
I was barred from entering the USA for simply not having a passport 3 years ago! (Not that I needed one) the border guard would not except my drivers license BC medical card Visa , etc as proof of identity. The whole country has gone insane and it is so sad to see the final days of the American Empire.
Gary
6 years ago
duck404
I don't really care if you're feeling the impact of my boycott down there. It's my boycott. And for what it's worth I have relatives all over the US. I also here some of them are so upset with your redneck government they are emmigrating back to Canada. They are coming back with a few of your more sane citizens.
Truman Green
6 years ago
rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air, eh
Can you really blame the US border guards for being thorough? Afterall, eh, that Bin Ladin guy figured out how to make the entire US Air Force stand down so his pilots could crash planes into buildings.
And apparently he done it with hypnosis. I seen this one Tom Flocco.com article where they got proof Mohammed Atta used LSD to hypnotize the Air Force, eh. They use lsd in hypnosis.
Who wouldn't be skittish after that?
wiley
6 years ago
whither the Aquarian age, gentle folks?
I guess it's time for the other 40 million people on Turtle Island with a similar history of spiritual curiosity and inevitable experimentation with available entheogens to shut up and go hide under a rock. A plague of ignorance, a new Dark Age sweeps the land....
Bluenose
6 years ago
edited for libel -- Tyee editor
Hey! It wasn't meant to be libelous ... it was meant as a tongue-in-cheek riposte to flattax's ridiculous characterisation of Andrew Feldmar as a deleted, libelous content. I don't believe for a moment that Andrew Feldmar is a deleted, libelous content. In fact, I think it's crazy to call him a deleted, libelous content, and I can't believe that anyone in this day and age would use such a term as deleted, libelous content to characterise someone who once used hallucinogenics.
doggone
6 years ago
never seen so many
Deleted/edited for libel. I will be much more careful in the future. NOT!
Big news tonight was 20,000 pounds/tons/kilograms whatever of Coke seized off the Pacific coast.
So far so good on the "war on Drugs"
Bytesmiths
6 years ago
"the right" vs "right"
To all those proclaiming that the US has "the right" to turn away anyone for any reason -- of course they do, but does that mean every one of those cases is "right?"
What is missing here is the connection between the goal and the implementation. Yea, sure, keep the terrorists and pushers out. But drug use 30 years ago? At a time when it was legal? That's simply a form of censorship that the US cannot yet do to their own citizens.
It's a slippery slope. Those who choose to interpret Section This Or That in a way that keeps intellectually challenging people out of the US will someday have jobs doing the same thing to their neighbors. And the guards at Guantanamo will get out of the military and possibly go into the security industry, where they'll be able to do the same thing to their neighbors.
"Democracy is for people who think like we do!"
ragnariii
6 years ago
Good to see
It's great to see that my the border doing its job keeping the undesirables (drug users, diseased, etc) out of our great country.
MRunner
6 years ago
Psilocybin as an Entheogen
It is my hope that eventually the use of certain entheogens as part of religious practice will be recognized in the United States. Already the US Supreme Court has ruled that a Brazilian religious group may continue to use a hallucinogenic tea as part of their practice (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-21-court-tea_x.htm). The court said in their ruling that the prosecution had failed to show any harm done by the practice.
This ruling combined with results of recent studies with psilocybin could open the door for legal religious use of "magic mushrooms" (http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2006/24jul06/24sacred.html).
A religion with psychedelic sacrament such as Matrixism, based on the movie The Matrix, may seem far fetched. But when one considers the fact that over 500,000 people worldwide officially claim Jedi Knight as their religion Matrixism (http://www.geocities.com/matrixism2069) seems to have potential.
Reader11722
6 years ago
Mike D
This is all about the First Amendment. Let's not follow the gov't down the path of censorship. After all, censorship is becoming America's favorite past-time. The US gov't (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like "America Deceived" from Amazon and Wikipedia, shut down Imus and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings. Free Speech forever (especially for science).
Last link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0
afc
6 years ago
unfortunate
This is an unfortunate situation, and the waiver process should be more straightforward. However, there becomes a problem when we use individual examples of hardship to change rules... it's better to have a reasonable waiver process. Any rule, even the best intentioned, will have an unfortunate impact on some individuals. That's not a reason to change the rule. So, keep the rules in place, but provide a mechanism for a logical review to see if one was selected because of legitimate concerns (someone with continued DWIs despite treatment) versus meeting some screening criteria (a previous DWI, or whatever the case may be) but clear evidence that this is not a pattern. No country wants to welcome people with a clearly reckless history. But, that's not the case here. Don't throw out the rules that apply to everyone because of individuals, but also we should do our best to then look at each case individually for their merits. Thus, I think the rule should stay in place, but I also think Mr. Feldmar should be able to enter. (BTW, the article says "did Ph.D. studies" at three separate institutions but did not say if he ever earned the degree, and thus I refer to him as Mr. instead of Dr.)
somewhatsmart
6 years ago
it happens
I've traveled to the US for years on holidays and for business and had never had any difficulties until about 2 years ago when I foolishly decided to apply for a work visa.
I say 'foolish' because I hadn't realized that 2 minor convictions from over 20 years ago would show up on the homeland security's criminal check. I was immediately deemed inadmissible and I was sent back to Canada. Almost 2 years on with lot's of paperwork I am now able to travel to the US.
I now have to carry a special waiver (I-194) which has become just as important as my passport. I have a blog which details my entire experience. [url=http://uswaiver.blogspot.com]
squarebottle
6 years ago
Protecting foreigners from you
If I understand correctly the loonies are preventing us otherwise sane types from entering the asylum...
At $2-£1 it might seem like a good time to visit but the $3500 surcharge puts me off.
Might we (who have been refused) start a fund to save our trapped American friends? If we all put our $3500's into a fund to liberate those poor unfortunates who live in the USA under conditions of censorship and fear. I'm sure we could buy a lot of flights. In fact it strikes me that the US may help, aiding the forced deportation of scholars, intellectuals, peace lovers and the like.
Sort of a "Mariel Boatlift" in reverse?
Some compassion please for our oppressed American friends.
Alan Cabal
6 years ago
How To Get Into The USSA
The southern border is wide open. He should have told them he was a Mexican pedophile. We have them in abundance here. There are three of them living in my zip code.
southdeltawalker
6 years ago
torture..let's do something about this!
We cannot do anything about the practices at the American border but we just might be able to do something about our Candaian soldiers in Afghanistan turning prisoners over for torture.
Let's try to stop Canada from going down that road..we're not Americans..thank goodness!
Please go to Globe and Mail article on torture:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070423.wafghanabuse0423/BNStory/National/home
and send letters
letters@globeandmail.ca
and your local papers, your M.P and anyone/anywhere else.
kootcoot
6 years ago
Dr. Feldmar's Mistake
If Dr. Feldmar wants to try entering the US sometime in the future I have a suggestion. Maybe if he showed up actually ON DRUGS at the time, carrying a chain saw covered in human blood - then perhaps the US border guards wouldn't bat an eye.
Or maybe this only works if crossing from New Brunswick into Maine.
r_berning
6 years ago
Another Holocaust Coming?
We exclude intellectuals and people of public prominence, whilst we allow illegal Aliens, some who are diseased, some who are drug carriers and some who are honest people wanting a new chance to cross our borders.
Just a note for those who might think my use illegal alien as a hate term, its not, it’s legalize, for a person of foreign stature entering a country without explicit permission of said country.
I on the other hand am a legal immigrant who voluntarily served his adopted country out of the attitude; I owe her for the life she gave me. I am of German origin, and when I see such acts of exclusion being perpetrated upon people such as Andrew Feldmar it reminds me of a dark period of history, a holocaust not just of the Jews, but the world at large.
How many sons and daughters that could have had an astounding world changing impact did we all loose do to senseless violence of the twentieth century. It had it roots in exclusion of class, race, and such persons declared undesirable by governments, who overrode the common sense of the ordinary citizenry to be intolerable to those with the government stamp of disapproval.
When will the U.S. export or disappear her scholars and such. Say, it will never happen! I will stand as a testament that it has happened and will most likely happen again in this country.
My heart felt condolences go out to Andrew Feldmar and his family. The true link we have in this world is family, when that is severed, the people loose.
thomas49
6 years ago
METH HEAD PILOTS AND FRIENDLY FIRE...
hey ...remember the friendly fire incident that killed our troops...and those piolts were wired on methamphetamines as per their training and flying orders...
someone SEE YHE HYPOCRRISY ????????????
course when your keeping out potheads and people with the munchies you can be ASSURRED your country will be safe...
NOW IF YOU CAN KEEP OUT THE REAL PROBLEMS !
you might have more friends around the world...INSTEAD OF ENEMIES
SUCH A PARANOID STATE OF AFFAIRS,THE GTREATES NATION ON EARTH HAS TURNED OUT TO BE...
like the fall of the roman empire...IT BEGINS ...WITHIN...
bye , bye
gary_7vn
6 years ago
Why travel to America?
This poor schmuck had a good reason to visit America. Somehow, despite his very clear and close brushes with fascism, he was unable to see what has happened in America and like a fool he told them the truth. You sound like a kind gentle man Andrew, smart too, maybe you will pay attention now and start to help us rid the world of these monsters like Bush and his little helper Harper.
I don't want to visit America anymore than I want to visit North Korea, or Myanmar, or Nazi Germany. There is no democracy in America. People who believe in freedom should not visit there any more than they should vote for Harper.
And to our American friends, 911 was an inside job. Get over it and get out Iraq.
whamcam
6 years ago
drug use and travel
Lots of people use drugs.
Lots. - how many?:
(from a CBC article on drug use from 2004)
14% of canadians reported using weed in 2004 - thats 4.5 million canadians who have used pot in 2004 who shouldnt be allowed into the USA
10 million Canadians have toked up atleast once in thier lives -- that number 10 million keep in mind that Canada's current population is around 33 million - thats almost 30% of Canadians. the US gov says this:
"Anyone who is determined to be a drug abuser or user is inadmissible."
So if your a Canadian look to your left and right. One of you statiscily could be denied entry to the USA. The idea that someone is dangeous or undesireable because they put a crazy chemical in thier body 30 years ago is absurd, disgusting, and shamefully small minded.
Shame on anyone who thinks this is a reasonable way to cunduct buisness over a border.
ashamed to be a...
6 years ago
One good thing
Mr. Feldmar I suppose should be considered very fortunate indeed that he was not allowed to cross the border and then be spirited off to Guantanamo for x number of years....
Maybe some of this insanity will start to retreat after November 2008??? We can hope...
Beacon Hill
6 years ago
whamcam
Almost?
Athene.Noctua
6 years ago
Psychodelic Studies in FL .ORG
""Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
http://www.maps.org/
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v16n3-html/who_we_are.html
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a membership-based, IRS-approved 501 (c) (3) non-profit research and educational organization. We assist scientists to design, fund, obtain approval for and report on studies into the risks and benefits of MDMA, psychedelic drugs and marijuana.
MAPS' mission is to sponsor scientific research designed to develop psychedelics and marijuana into FDA-approved prescription medicines, and to educate the public honestly about the risks and benefits of these drugs. Read our strategy statement for more information.
We need your support so together we can make a difference. In addition to general membership donations, MAPS is seeking to raise funds for specific research projects. These are our funding priorities and here are our financial reports.
For background reading, see MAPS President Rick Doblin's doctoral dissertation (Harvard, Kennedy School of Govt., 2001) "Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," visit our media and audio/visual archives, or peruse the latest issue of the MAPS Bulletin and our monthly news update.
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v16n3-html/who_we_are.html
sillycibin
6 years ago
What is interesting
is that the US bans discrimination of us citizens based on past drug use.
Someday we'll learn to stop lumping all illegal drugs together and making ignorant blanket statements and laws concerning them. And maybe we'll treat people who use drugs like we should, as free individuals. And we'll treat people suffering from addiction like we should, as people suffering from organic brain injuries. Not baddies who need to be warred against and locked up. We can win the war on drugs, just like we'll win the war on terror...
Truman Green
6 years ago
I know two people who use pot regularly;
One who was hit by a car while riding a scooter (had a stroke before the collision with the car) and some of the world's worst luck), and another who has osteoarthritis.
I hate the crap personally,(putting smoke in your lungs...you gotta be kidding), but both of these people find immense value in its physical and psychological analgesic efficacy, and they'd both be very harmless and dependable as visitors to the United States or any other country--if the United States was actually a sensible place to visit these days, that is.
thomas49
6 years ago
CANNABOID RECEPTORS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hey ,folks...whats a cannaboid receptor doing in our brains?????????????????
HUH?????????????
yes...really,we got a really neat thing up there behind our eyes and betwixt our ears and wouldn't you know it,it has got all kinds of rceptors there that have grown in our brain,over,our progress from the slimeball we wuuz to the cretins we is
and todays brain has CANNABOID RECEPTORS!!!
YA FIGGER OUR,FOREBEARES WUZ HEAVY USERS ???
OR WHAT ???
doggone
6 years ago
Easy now Thomas
The Brain, Right?
These discussions make me want to barf sometimes. Not because of what any particular poster says - more because it says so much about where we are all finding ourselves just now: we are getting pumped in arguments about recreational drugs!
There is no problem with dabbling or experimenting. But when a dabbler runs up against a "straight" bonehead hired to "ensure that the Border is safe" the dabbler generally gets the worst of it. There is no "Right and Wrong" here, just the "way it is".
Talked to an admitted drug smuggler about this, he only ran drugs while high on LSD: "I could see the holes." I assume he has either given it all up or been imprisoned.
It would not surprise me if Drug enforcement agencies dosed their own so they could see the "holes"
Get it?
malexs
6 years ago
Survey - Worst country to visit in the world:
A few months ago, an English radio station reported on a survey that was conducted in England. The question; What is the worst place in the world to visit? - The amazingly and true overwhelming answer; America!!.
Not because Americans are bad people, but simply due to American Customs.
American Customs have turned the once Utopian land of opportunity into a frightful and controlling place to visit. Even transiting in America can be horrendous. Despite not actually intending to visit America, you will require a visa and be put through all sorts of checks and fingerprints, always with the possibility that you may not even be allowed to transit to your final destination outside of America..!
This seems more an attempt by the America Government to try and control everyone and everything than to actually provide a service to its people (or the world). In actual fact, they are hurting the country's international reputation to no extent.
I for one will gladly pay double the airfare to avoid having to transit in America whenever I travel.
clubofrome
6 years ago
Double or nothing....
I agree malexs, I will pay double to avoid touching down in the US. You'd think that their massive trade deficit might help foster cooperation and promote tourist dollars. Good Job Dubya! You're one smart fella!
swedane
6 years ago
Staying Home
The thought of a U.S. border stazi profiling and fingerprinting a person is enough cause to stay home, thank you very much!
My husband and I have lived in Canada for a little more than 40 years and love it here. Not to mention how we always enjoyed visiting and spending many a holidays in the US. However, all of that ended with 9/11.
Back then, I made an OATH to myself; if Bush invaded Iraq I'd not set foot in USA until the American people ousted him. Which I thought for sure was going to happen in 2004!! Little did I know he'd still be there seven years later.
I was too young to remember when my Country was invaded by Germany. I do, however, remember the grim aftermath.
My father and many of his friends were arrested, tortured and sent to concentration camps, some never returning home. The ones that did return were never the same again. NO, my father was neither Jewish, green or gay. His crime was joining the resistance movement and getting caught. In todays world he'd be treated as a terrorist and sent off to an internment camp, stripped of all his rights, tortured and eventually hanged. And, sadly, no-one but his family would seemingly care.
The BUSH administration has successfully restored everything my father and millions of brave men and women fought against and gave their lives for. The tragic irony is; We, THE PEOPLE, are no less guilty than that of the German people back then. We too have wittingly allowed the destruction and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of lives and continue to do so. How many more lives should we destroy before enough is enough?
mikev
6 years ago
well look at that
hey wow, a link from the register!
http://www.theregister.com/2007/05/04/cfp_day_three/
right at the end.
Rhywbeth
6 years ago
Our Border
Has anyone read the message on the Peace Arch? Does anyone know the Canadian/American history? Is anyone surprised at these American tactics? This American is not but is terribly embarrassed for our government. Good grief! It was forty years ago! (Isn't that the alibi our politicians use when caught?) I wonder how much of this border squabbling is simple "gotcha" politics and nothing more.
agnomonus
6 years ago
The Problem
The problem, as I see it, is that those who are charged with enforcing the laws, and in most cases, those who create the laws in the first place, are those within society least capable of independent thought and action. Let's face it, the great minds among us do not take jobs as "enforcers", whether it be policemen, border patrol agents, etc. The great minds among us don't take jobs where you get to wear a gun, or a badge. They don't take jobs where you can lord authority over another. Anyone who is not a half wit knows Andrew Feldmar is not a threat to the US National Security, but only a half wit lets the "law" do his thinking for him. It is not from Andrew Feldmar that we need protection, but from government, and specifically from THIS government. The average citizen today must contend with threats from both the terrorists and from the governments who would "protect" them.
dorothy
6 years ago
tacit my foot
“Anyone who is not a half wit knows Andrew Feldmar is not a threat to the US National Security, but only a half wit lets the "law" do his thinking for him.”
Really, Anyone?? It would depend on how you defend ‘knowing’ and how you defend ‘security’. Feldmar himself would be the first to recognize, if it wasn’t so damned inconvenient in this case, that scientific method puts high demands on the concept of ‘knowing’, and rightfully so.
And, people who have wits use their thinker. Then they reach a consensus, and then they make laws. And then they respect those laws, for if they don’t who will?
Being in the business of method development, I am constantly reminded of the need for methodologies to be ‘robust’. That means, they have to work in the best hands you can afford to leave them in. This may not say much when we are talking border guards, certainly not when we compare them to NObel prize winners. Nevertheless, having crossed the border numerous times myself, for various purposes, it has been my experience, that most of the guards on both sides probably do a better job than they get paid for doing; most know their business and do it without fuss and nonsense, sometimes even with a mild sense of humour, which I admire, given the crap they are sometimes faced with. A very modest amount of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. goes a very long way. Amen.
And shame on whoever dragged the natives into this petty stuff! The most able shamen- and women I know are unanimous that entheogens are for those too lazy to meet the spirits honestly and do the long haul with them.