A pair of middle-aged newlyweds cannot live together in North Carolina or anywhere else in the U.S. because the husband smoked marijuana as a teenager and was convicted three times of simple possession -- in Canada. Terry VanDuzee, 48, says one of the three convictions was expunged and he's been pardoned for all three. Nonetheless, American law bars anyone from immigrating to the United States if convicted of drug offenses more than twice.

Debbie VanDuzee met her future husband, Terry, in an online chat room. After corresponding and meeting up several times, the couple married in August of 2002 in New Brunswick. They planned to move back to her home in North Carolina after his immigration paperwork was finished, but he's still in Canada 19 months later.

The couple has asked for help from elected officials and government agencies on both sides of the US-Canada border, including President Bush, Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and Canadian immigration. They've also set up a website to document their quest to live together and ask visitors to petition the US government on their behalf.

"If you had to be punished continually over all your [life] for things we did as teenagers, we'd all be up a creek," Debbie told the Herald-Sun newspaper. "Terry deserves to be forgiven. Why should he have to suffer the rest of his life for something he did when he was a teenager?"