Cannabis may be legal in both Canada and Michigan, but U.S. border agents say people aren't getting the message that they can't carry it over the border.
The Detroit Field Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided a summary Monday of its seizure totals for the 2020 fiscal year. The figures included a whopping increase of pot seizures at the Michigan ports-of-entry that the field office oversees.
Even as border traffic was restricted to essential travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, agents seized 9,059 pounds of cannabis, a 1,736 per cent increase from the 2019 fiscal year.
Even though recreational cannabis use is allowed in both Canada as a whole and the state of Michigan, it cannot be brought over the border under any circumstances. Penalties for doing so remain stiff, and a few people have been barred entry for past marijuana use.
Seizures of illicit drugs did not stop there this past fiscal year. The CBP also intercepted 211 pounds of cocaine, one and a half pounds of methamphetamines, and just over 15 pounds of fentanyl.
Firearms at the border are still a problem, according to the CBP. Just over 200 firearms were seized in the 2020 fiscal year, a two-fold increase from last year, along with 5,334 rounds of ammunition. The total of undeclared currency brought over was $4.3 million.
A total of 225 people were arrested at the border for charges including narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, fraud, and firearms violations.
Christopher Perry, CBP field operations director at Detroit, praised his agents for working under some unprecedented conditions.
"This past year the men and women of CBP worked through some of the most adverse conditions that we have ever asked them to work through especially here in Detroit," said Perry. "I am simply amazed at how our officers steadfastly enforced the laws of the United States while fostering our nation’s economic security through lawful international trade and travel during the greatest pandemic my generation has seen."
The ports-of-entry covered by the Detroit Field Office include the Ambassador Bridge and Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, and the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie.