YouGiveMeHeartF
Junior Member
Back story:
I am an Foreign Medical Graduate (graduating in June). I visited Canada about 1.5 years ago just for visa reasons and then re-entered the United States driving my car. I had some time off, so I told one of my best friends that we could road trip together and head down to where my brother lives for a couple of weeks and hang out. We were all friends during childhood. He had never been to the US, so we packed up our things and headed out.
The Problem:
We got to the land border between the US and Canada. I had let my friend drive since he had never experienced crossing the border before. I figured it would be an interesting experience for him. Bad move. I guess I should have known that it was a bad idea because any hesitation in answering a customs and border patrol officers question leads to suspicion. When my friend was asked about where we were heading, he did not know the exact address so he fumbled with the answer, so I had to help him with where we were going. I eventually told the officer it was my brothers place, and I was a medical student etc etc and my friend was just coming to visit with me for a couple of weeks blah blah, it's all good and we are being truthful.
We get pulled over to secondary inspection and they ask us if its okay to search my car. I had no problems with this. I figure it's a routine secondary screening and I have nothing to hide. I had a bunch of clothes, books, normal med-student stuff like white coats and stethoscopes, and my electronics. We sat inside the waiting area and one of the officers searching the car came back in and said that they found a small pipe with a residue in it. Turns out my friend had a small glass pipe with marijuana residue on it in his small hand-carry bag.
At this point... I am livid. I think that this is the end. I am screwed and there goes my medical career before it even started. The officers asked if we had any drugs on us. I looked at my friend, because I was 100% sure I did not have anything with me. They threatened to tear apart all my car seats and do a very through search. I looked at my friend and said, if you do have anything, just tell them...
Turns out, he had a minuscule amount of marijuana hidden in his DSLR camera battery compartment. They said they would have never found it. Regardless, now they have a small glass pipe and I would say 0.3 grams of marijuana (probably not enough to even roll up a joint).
If you don't know the law: Who ever is the owner of the car gets shafted, regardless of who the substance belonged to. My friend even admitted to them that I had no idea about any of the stuff they found, and said that the responsibility should go to him, and not me. They didn't care. The law is the law. I ended up getting my photo taken and fingerprinted by the CBP.
They knew I was a good person I guess from what they could see. I had my hospital ID and books so it was obvious I was a med student. They told me that I can either pay a 500 dollar fine, or deal with the local police. I didn't know which would be a better option. On one hand, it would have been Detroit or Michigan State police, and I have heard they are a little lenient on weed charges, especially with such a tiny amount. It was pretty late into the night so I didn't know what to do. I had to make a choice and went with the 500 dollar ticket. On the paper they gave me, the ticket said "possession of controlled substances while crossing the border" or something like that. I did not get a court summons, but when I thought about it recently, paying a ticket is equal to admitting guilt. I did not think about that before. They did allow me into the country to continue with my medical schooling. I know this is not usually the case and people get sent back to Canada for something like this. Does this mean they took pity on my situation and didn't make it official? Will programs be able to see this 500 dollar ticket? Is this something I should have mentioned on ERAS as a misdemeanor?
I am worried that this is going to come back to bite me in the ass when Match Day comes around and they send you the form for a consent to run a criminal background check. After this incident, I ran a criminal background check on myself from a website that charges 30 or 40 dollars that I found online. That background check came back clean. It claims to check all FBI, State, Federal, and a whole bunch of other databases. But I know not all background searches are created equal.
SO... my questions are:
1) Was this a misdemeanor?
2) Should I mention this when the program sends me the paperwork after match day?
2) What kind of criminal background checks do residency programs conduct? Do they query the CBP database? Does CBP even have a database?
3) I'm just looking for any advice at all. I have read so many things online for months and I cant really find an answer to this. Anxiety is at an all time high.
If it matters, my friend offered to get a signed affidavit drafted to prove that what I am saying is true. My friend feels terrible for what happened and will help in any way possible, including admitting guilt on a legal document.
Thank you for reading the wall of text.
I am an Foreign Medical Graduate (graduating in June). I visited Canada about 1.5 years ago just for visa reasons and then re-entered the United States driving my car. I had some time off, so I told one of my best friends that we could road trip together and head down to where my brother lives for a couple of weeks and hang out. We were all friends during childhood. He had never been to the US, so we packed up our things and headed out.
The Problem:
We got to the land border between the US and Canada. I had let my friend drive since he had never experienced crossing the border before. I figured it would be an interesting experience for him. Bad move. I guess I should have known that it was a bad idea because any hesitation in answering a customs and border patrol officers question leads to suspicion. When my friend was asked about where we were heading, he did not know the exact address so he fumbled with the answer, so I had to help him with where we were going. I eventually told the officer it was my brothers place, and I was a medical student etc etc and my friend was just coming to visit with me for a couple of weeks blah blah, it's all good and we are being truthful.
We get pulled over to secondary inspection and they ask us if its okay to search my car. I had no problems with this. I figure it's a routine secondary screening and I have nothing to hide. I had a bunch of clothes, books, normal med-student stuff like white coats and stethoscopes, and my electronics. We sat inside the waiting area and one of the officers searching the car came back in and said that they found a small pipe with a residue in it. Turns out my friend had a small glass pipe with marijuana residue on it in his small hand-carry bag.
At this point... I am livid. I think that this is the end. I am screwed and there goes my medical career before it even started. The officers asked if we had any drugs on us. I looked at my friend, because I was 100% sure I did not have anything with me. They threatened to tear apart all my car seats and do a very through search. I looked at my friend and said, if you do have anything, just tell them...
Turns out, he had a minuscule amount of marijuana hidden in his DSLR camera battery compartment. They said they would have never found it. Regardless, now they have a small glass pipe and I would say 0.3 grams of marijuana (probably not enough to even roll up a joint).
If you don't know the law: Who ever is the owner of the car gets shafted, regardless of who the substance belonged to. My friend even admitted to them that I had no idea about any of the stuff they found, and said that the responsibility should go to him, and not me. They didn't care. The law is the law. I ended up getting my photo taken and fingerprinted by the CBP.
They knew I was a good person I guess from what they could see. I had my hospital ID and books so it was obvious I was a med student. They told me that I can either pay a 500 dollar fine, or deal with the local police. I didn't know which would be a better option. On one hand, it would have been Detroit or Michigan State police, and I have heard they are a little lenient on weed charges, especially with such a tiny amount. It was pretty late into the night so I didn't know what to do. I had to make a choice and went with the 500 dollar ticket. On the paper they gave me, the ticket said "possession of controlled substances while crossing the border" or something like that. I did not get a court summons, but when I thought about it recently, paying a ticket is equal to admitting guilt. I did not think about that before. They did allow me into the country to continue with my medical schooling. I know this is not usually the case and people get sent back to Canada for something like this. Does this mean they took pity on my situation and didn't make it official? Will programs be able to see this 500 dollar ticket? Is this something I should have mentioned on ERAS as a misdemeanor?
I am worried that this is going to come back to bite me in the ass when Match Day comes around and they send you the form for a consent to run a criminal background check. After this incident, I ran a criminal background check on myself from a website that charges 30 or 40 dollars that I found online. That background check came back clean. It claims to check all FBI, State, Federal, and a whole bunch of other databases. But I know not all background searches are created equal.
SO... my questions are:
1) Was this a misdemeanor?
2) Should I mention this when the program sends me the paperwork after match day?
2) What kind of criminal background checks do residency programs conduct? Do they query the CBP database? Does CBP even have a database?
3) I'm just looking for any advice at all. I have read so many things online for months and I cant really find an answer to this. Anxiety is at an all time high.
If it matters, my friend offered to get a signed affidavit drafted to prove that what I am saying is true. My friend feels terrible for what happened and will help in any way possible, including admitting guilt on a legal document.
Thank you for reading the wall of text.