Canada's border agents confiscated way more weed lately but not because there are more users

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Since weed became legal in Canada back in October 2018, Canadian border agents have confiscated way more weed lately but it's not for the reason you'd think. CBSA revealed recently that the number of weed confiscations at the border went up over 60% from 2017 to 2018. In fact, in just over one month after legalization, there were 329 cases where CBSA seized cannabis from travellers at the border. 

Given that weed is legal here, one would likely think there are two possible reasons for this. The first might be that there are more people using cannabis in the wake of legalization. Another theory could be that more tourists coming to Canada are bringing their weed across the border in hopes of enjoying it legally here. Shockingly though, neither of those are the real reason.

According to CBSA, the reason behind the increase in weed confiscations is simply that they have been asking more people whether or not they have weed with them. This was especially happening in those first six weeks after legalization. So this means that there aren't more people attempting to cross the border with weed, but now there are just fewer people getting away with it.

In fact, other recent numbers from Statistics Canada have found that since legalization there actually has barely been an increase in the number of Cannabis users. 

In fact, their numbers show that only 4.6 million Canadians reported using cannabis in the past couple of months. This number has been relatively unchanged since October and is only about 15% of the population.

What has changed is border policies surround pot.For example, a big fear ahead of legalization was that Canadians who consumed even legal weed would be banned for life from the United States since weed is still legal there. There is even a confirmed case of this happening last month. 

Meanwhile, on the Canadian side, CBSA has been asking more people coming into the country if they have weed and that has resulted in the higher numbers of seizures or voluntary surrenders of the now legal product.

Even though weed has been legalized in Canada, it is still illegal to bring drugs across any international borders, including Canada's. If you are caught doing so you could face serious drug trafficking charges. 

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