Guns and drugs
Medical Marijuana Users Fight For Gun Rights. Interesting story from NPR no less:
Willis is not only packing a concealed handgun permit in her wallet, she also has a medical marijuana card. That combination has led the local sheriff to try to take her gun permit away.
Also, your form 4473 asks you to affirm you’re not an illegal user of drugs. Via SIH.
And in Ohio, a judge rules that those charged with misdemeanor drug offenses do not lose their right to arms.
April 4th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Key word here is ILLEGAL. If you are a legal drug user, then you are not lying on the 4473 when you answer “no”.
I guess we will soon see a new 4473, revised to show this.
April 4th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
If use of a legal drug for medical reasons (even as bogus as medical marijuana in the vast majority of cases) becomes reason to infringe 2nd Amendment rights, I wonder how long before use of antidepressants, cholesterol drugs, or diabetic insulin becomes a dis-qualifier for firearms purchase or CHL approval.
There are a lot of drugs out there that change your personality more than THC.
April 4th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Mr. B: At the Federal level, it’s still illegal, even with a State card. States don’t get to trump the Controlled Substances Act – at least not yet.
Congress should just get rid of the question entirely.
April 4th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
“Also, your form 4473 asks you to affirm you’re not an illegal user of drugs.”
According to the 10th Amendment, the Federal Gov’t has no “delegated powers” to ask or enforce such a thing.
April 4th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
As a medical marijuana patient myself, I’m not the stereotypical pothead. I’ve maintained a job for 4 years, comply with ALL state regulations, I don’t drive (inactive compounds stay in your system 30 days and they’re charging people with OUI’s).
IMO, the Fed Gov’t needs to reschedule marijuana to a Schedule 2 and this will all be over. No more fighting about what’s medicine and what’s not, how/why/who can use it and how they can live a functional life with this medicine.
Josh– an arthritis patient with crushed spinal nerves that will never properly heal
April 4th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Didn’t they have to modify the Lautenburg Amendment a few years back so that Retired Police Officers convicted of misdemeanors could be allowed to CCW? So doesn’t that mean there is a Federal Component to this issue already on the books?
April 4th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Holy PSH, that article about the Ohio case is a gold mine.
“They were military-style assault rifles — one with a functioning bayonet — as well as clips storing 63 rounds of ammunition and a handgun with a scope.”
OMG he’s got a gun with a knife on it! This is just the sort of hardware criminals have been using in the recent spate of bayonettings. A 63 round magazine! obviosly he’s planning on killing several bus loads of school children. And he has a sniper pistol! He’s probably a terrorist planning on shooting down a plane.
“‘The rifles themselves are capable of cutting a tree down,’ Assistant County Prosecutor Bill Kaczmarek said during the hearing. ‘They’re capable of stopping a bus. They’re weapons that are used on the fields of war.'”
See! Proof! He has bus stopping weapons for felling saplings on the field of war! He’s evil! The guns are evil! For the children! Don’t you even care about the children!?
Now I have to go change my pants…and throw away my chair.
April 4th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Bubblehead – There is currently no exemptions to the Lautenburg amendment.
April 4th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
That prosecutor needs to be fired or deported.
or both.
April 4th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
IANL, but it seems like an interesting case under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
April 4th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
She needs something better than a Walther 22 for a carry weapon though.
April 4th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Why did they need a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, but not to ban marijuana and other now illicit substances? Didn’t Portugal legalize marijuana a few years back? Anybody know how that turned out?
April 4th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
It turned out pretty good.. Of course pot use in portugal has never been a drug of choice for self repressed teenagers that think no one understands them… I prefer spains view. You can grow and use it all you want. You sell it then you spent 10-20 doing hard labor under the blazing sun…
April 4th, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Forgot to include. Only if the country is pursuing legalization… I personally could care less. I don’t use and don’t care if you do as long as you don’t get stupid around me. But then that goes for everyone pot or not.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:09 am
@Gerry — yes, Portugal actually decriminalized ALL drugs (big difference — decriminalization and legalization) … where drug offenders go in front of a counselor to either go to treatment or pay a fine. Treatment is paid for by the country, as would jail costs/prisions … their theory, “if we’re going to spend millions locking people up, might as well spend that money on treating their disease”.
Those kind of ideas don’t make sense to American legislature, though.
April 5th, 2011 at 11:53 am
The Obama administration says that local governments are not allowed to enforce Federal Law. Just ask Arizona. Therefore, the Sheriff has no authority to revoke her CCW for what is legal under the laws of her state.