EXTREMISM IN PURSUIT OF . . . . WHAT?
A Canadian mental health professional was barred entry to the US because a search of the internet came up with a 2001 publication in which he acknowledged using LSD - four decades earlier (NY Times, May 14)! A US Government spokesperson defended the action by saying that drug users are not welcome in America, and all possible means will be used to identify them. The thwarted visitor, Andrew Feldmar, noted: "I should warn people that the electronic footprint you leave on the Net will be used against you. It cannot be erased."
posted by RGNewman, MD @ 10:20 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
A U.S. Customs border guard, making an arbitrary decision to turn a person back from entering the United States, on very limited information, gained from a Google search, strikes me as an intellectually indefensible decision. What this border guard read described research many, many years ago. What was contained in the internet search doesn't speak at all to the good moral character and integrity this particularly individual, in question, has. It is an amazingly shortsighted, black and white decision and a decision to be ashamed of, frankly. It's an embarrassment. In Canada, there is something called 'free speech'. The publication of research information in a respected journal is exactly that, 'free speech'. It is appaling that the context with which this research was done and published was not adequately taken into account. It is asinine at best to turn this individual away from the U.S. permanently, where the only possible remedy is a waiver. They are costly and are often provided for a relatively short period of time.
i think it is an appalling action to keep this physician out of the country simply because of experimentation with a substance, as a registered nurse I know personally of many, many physicians HERE in the United States who have had problems with pain killers and opiotes as well as a myriad of other substances. Speaking as someone who has been on both sides of the system of medical treatment, it seems to me that perhaps it would make the man a better doctor to have experienced things that his patients have. When did we no longer become the land of the free and the home of the brave. Everyone has a past, there is a point to which one has to say enough, how far are we going to go back and to what extent are we going to draw the line? Okay, so don't let in a known pedophile. But this man hurt no one but himself. What? Are we going to start not allowing green cards to anyone who was a bully in grade school now? What about a teen mom?
What about HIV patients? Where does this end? I for one am ashamed to be known as an American right now.
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