Feds Say Tourist Who Admitted To Prior Marijuana Use In Legal Places Was Denied Entry To US Over Drugs—Not Bald JD Vance Meme
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is clarifying that the reason its agents denied entry to the U.S. for a Norwegian man wasn’t over a meme of a bald Vice President J.D. Vance that they found on his phone, despite reports to the contrary. Rather, it was because he admitted to previously using illegal drugs—which the tourist says was merely marijuana in legal jurisdictions.
Mads Mikkelsen was denied entry at a port of entry in New Jersey earlier this month. And it made global headlines because, after he was confronted with a meme of Vance on his phone by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents, it was reported that he was turned away from the country for political reasons.
DHS and CBP have refuted that claim, however, sharing posts on Tuesday that push back against the reporting.
“FACT CHECK. Claims that Mads Mikkelsen was denied entry because of a meme are unequivocally FALSE,” DHS said. “TRUTH: Mikkelsen was refused entry into the U.S. for his admitted drug use. Only those who respect our laws and follow the rules will be welcomed into our country.”
Mikkelsen said that, upon questioning, he admitted to using cannabis in Mexico and Germany, he told the Norwegian newspaper Nordlys.
“It’s legal in both places, so in my mind it was irrelevant,” he said. “It’s a legal substance where it was taken—just like alcohol.”
He also claimed that a document explaining his denied entry contained at least two falsehoods: One, that he had a passport from Spain, when he is a Norwegian citizen who has never visited Spain. And second, that he physically possessed a pipe at the time of his entry, when CBP simply found a photo of a pipe on his phone.
While marijuana remains federally prohibited, the department’s reasoning for denying the tourist are nonetheless notable.
It’s not clear when Mikkelsen’s prior marijuana use took place, but even by CBP’s own policy, applicants to work at the agency itself are only ineligible for employment if they’ve used controlled substances, including cannabis, within three years of their application.
This is one of the latest cannabis-related controversies involving DHS and CBP.
In January, just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, DHS and CBP urged a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit from licensed New Mexico marijuana businesses who claim the agencies have been unconstitutionally seizing state-regulated marijuana products and detaining industry workers at interior checkpoints.
Representatives of eight New Mexico marijuana businesses jointly filed the lawsuit against the federal government last October in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. That action came months after initial reports emerged of CBP agents increasingly taking cannabis products and other assets from state licensees at border checkpoints throughout the state.
The controversy also caught the attention of certain congressional lawmakers. For example, Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) sought to amend appropriations legislation covering DHS by explicitly preventing U.S. border patrol agents from using funds to seize marijuana from state-licensed businesses.
Last April, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) could be heard saying on a leaked recording that she was “offended” when the secretary of the DHS reacted to her concern about the recent surge in CBP seizures of marijuana from legal operators in her state by saying, “Who cares? They make a lot of money.”
“Although medical and recreational marijuana may be legal in some U.S. States and Canada, the sale, possession, production and distribution of marijuana or the facilitation of the aforementioned remain illegal under U.S. federal law, given the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance,” a CBP spokesperson told Marijuana Moment last year. ”Consequently, individuals violating the Controlled Substances Act encountered while crossing the border, arriving at a U.S. port of entry, or at a Border Patrol checkpoint may be deemed inadmissible and/or subject to, seizure, fines, and/or arrest.”
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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
The post Feds Say Tourist Who Admitted To Prior Marijuana Use In Legal Places Was Denied Entry To US Over Drugs—Not Bald JD Vance Meme appeared first on Marijuana Moment.