As smoking marijuana became legal in Canada, Chinese visitors to the country fear they might get themselves in trouble by mistakenly consuming food containing weed or unknowingly bringing the drug back to China. 

Since October 17, Canadian adults can legally buy fresh or dried cannabis, cannabis oil, seeds and plants. 

Under Canadian law, it remains illegal to take cannabis or any product containing cannabis, across Canada's international borders, whether leaving or entering. 

Under China's 1997 Criminal Law, anyone who smuggles, traffics in, transports or manufactures narcotic drugs in any quantity shall be investigated for criminal responsibility and given a criminal punishment. 

Those found to illegally possess drugs face sentences up to and including life imprisonment and the death penalty. 

In a rising tide of fearful comments, net users shared concerns that their children could mistakenly consume food containing cannabis or accidentally traffic the drug back to China. 

Edibles that contain cannabis are illegal in Canada, but legal sale is likely to be permitted in October next year, the one-year anniversary of the Cannabis Act.

Chinese customs officials have the right to ask suspicious individuals to conduct a urine test. 

If a test found remnants of tetrahydrocannabinol, the visitor might face a jail sentence as a drug smuggler under Chinese law, Hua Zhendong, technical director of the China's National Narcotic Control Commission's National Narcotics Laboratory, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Travelers should aim to stay clean about a week before entering China's customs as consuming legal cannabis in Canada won't alter its illegality under Chinese law, experts warned on Tuesday.  

In 2017, China became Canada's largest source of overseas tourists, with 682,000 Chinese visiting the country last year, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

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