Only in the Red States –
Nov. 11, 2019 – Young has freely discussed his marijuana use in interviews and books. In his 2012 memoir, he wrote of being arrested in a drug bust with other members of Buffalo Springfield, his 1960s band. And in his 2014 memoir, he wrote that the August 1976 all-nighter he spent writing his album “Hitchhiker” was interrupted “only for weed, beer, or cocaine.” Though he had said he stopped smoking marijuana in 2011, he has since begun again, he told The Los Angeles Times.
The naturalization process involves an application and an interview, which includes a civics test. Under the “good moral character” provision, someone who has committed a crime may be disqualified temporarily or permanently, depending on the severity. Another disqualifier: people known to have participated in torture in their native countries.
Drug use doesn’t automatically disqualify naturalization applicants, said Anastasia Tonello, an immigration lawyer in New York and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “Some people can be rehabilitated, and it doesn’t mean if you’ve done drugs or you’ve ever been arrested for something minor that you can never become a U.S. citizen,” Tonello said. “But it certainly would complicate the process.”
