
U.S. Border bars Psychotherapist with drug research in his past (2007) - buro9
http://www.alternet.org/story/50948/u.s._border_patrol_bars_canadian_psychotherapist_with_drug_research_far_in_his_past
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buro9
There's another set of articles bouncing around but I wanted to dredge this
particular story.

The story is of a respected psychotherapy researcher for a Canadian
university. Andrew Felmar's profile is here:
[http://www.andrewfeldmar.ca/](http://www.andrewfeldmar.ca/)

This story was also covered here:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/08/closeddo...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/08/closeddoorsofperception)

The gist is: In his distant past, he researched the effect of various
substances that years later came to be classified as illegal substances. This
was in Canada, and he attempted travel to the USA. He was declined entry to
the USA as the border agency Googled his name, found his research, and
considered him an admitted drug user.

The point of posting this in light of the NSA and PRISM revalations is to show
that you needn't have done something wrong or be doing it today, that there
are examples of people who have found their past re-defined by the present and
that they now breach some rules that would not have been considered back then.

The message I took from this at the time was this:

    
    
        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.

~~~
lazyjones
> His real mistake was to write about his drug experiences and post this on
> the web, even in a respected journal like Janus Head.

In the light of the NSA scandal, would it really have made any difference if
he had only admitted to drug use in private communication? If the DHS has no
access to NSA surveillance data right now (or had in 2007, when this happend),
it's only a matter of time until they do.

~~~
buro9
In light of PRISM, no. I guess the only difference was whether you saw the
border control use Google, or whether you just arrived and were declined entry
without information as to why.

