A respectable Vancouver psychotherapist who took a few rides on the Technicolor express back in the 1960s has been forbidden from entering the United States after a border guard googled him and turned up some trippy writing the therapist published in 2001.
Andrew Feldmar, a psychologist who has worked for the UN to help Chernobyl victims, was accustomed to traveling to the U.S. five or six times a year to visit his children, according to a story this week in the Tyee, an independent Canadian newspaper. But when a border guard pulled the 66-year-old out of line last summer for a random search, Feldmar's trip quickly turned into a bad one. The guard turned up online evidence that Feldmar had dabbled in drugs for therapeutic research in the past. Of course, that was nearly four decades ago. And everyone was high then.
Here's how the rest of the Feldmar inquisition went down:
"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."
The Tyee provided this explanation from Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
"Persons with AIDS, tuberculosis, infectious diseases are inadmissible," Milne said. "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."
Groovy.
Photo: Corin Royal Drummond
