While the federal government has exercised restraint in going after medical marijuana, decades-old gun laws are still forcing medicinal cannabis users to give up their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
In today's heated political climate, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that conservatives and liberals agree on. However, medical marijuana is making unlikely bedfellows of the two as medical marijuana users across the country are beginning to receive notices instructing them to surrender their firearms. Today, 29 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form. While not all state laws are created equal, and programs in many East Coast states have yet to really get off the ground, public opinion is definitely turning in favor of medical marijuana. This is a far cry from the days of "Reefer Madness" in the early-to-mid 1900s. Medical cannabis is used to treat a number of chronic ailments. Studies have shown that medicinal marijuana can have significant effects treating everything from glaucoma to AIDS, anxiety disorders, and even cancer. Not all cannabis treatments produce a euphoric high, either. Non-psychoactive cannabidiol -- hemp oil -- has been shown to have remarkable effects on children and adults suffering from a variety of different seizure disorders. It is simply impossible to ignore the case studies showing how marijuana has saved and restored patients' lives and standards of living. While 29 states have legalized medicinal marijuana, the drug is still banned under federal law. Drug laws in the United States vary depending on how a specific drug or compound is classified. Marijuana is what is known as a Schedule I drug. It has this classification because the federal government considers cannabis to carry a high potential for abuse while having "no currently accepted medical use."
Obviously, that is patently false. There are countless medical studies pointing to the medicinal utility of marijuana, also shown by the fact that more than half of the states in the country have legalized medical pot. However, federal law refuses to budge.
This is a big deal for a number of reasons, one of which involves the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who uses or abuses illegal drugs or controlled substances to buy or possess firearms.
The Supreme Court ruled in its 2008 case Heller vs. District of Columbia that the Second Amendment protects both an individual right to keep and right to bear arms for purposes of self-defense. Like all other constitutional rights, a high burden is placed upon the government for proving why someone's rights should be violated. For decades, federal law has said that legally using prescription drugs should not disqualify someone from gun ownership. However, there is no way to legally use prescription pot.
Anytime someone tries to buy a firearm from a licensed dealer, they must fill out an ATF Form 4473, which is then used to process the background check. The form is mostly common sense, asking for the purchaser's information and whether or not they have a criminal record. One of the questions specifically deals with drug use.
"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?"Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, there is currently no way to legally use or consume it. For that reason, marijuana use -- even for medical purposes -- would disqualify someone from owning firearms. Applicants must decide whether to answer truthfully, and fail the background check, or hide their cannabis use and commit perjury on a federal form. The ATF recently added a footnote to this question a few years back, reminding applicants that "the use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside." Here, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is admitting, at least tacitly, that marijuana can serve a medicinal purpose. Even so, the ATF is simultaneously citing a federal law which bans marijuana for having no medical utility. Across the country, states are having to remind their residents of this. Many traditionally Democratic blue states have long required gun owners to register themselves or their weapons. Now that these states are starting to roll out medical marijuana, they are crosschecking their gun registries against their list of medical marijuana card holders. Anyone found on both registries is being instructed to relinquish their weapons. Letters have recently been sent out in Hawaii, notifying gun-owning medical marijuana users that they have "30 days upon receipt of this letter to voluntarily surrender your firearms, permit, and ammunition to the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) or otherwise transfer ownership." Otherwise law-abiding Americans who rely on medical cannabis are being forced to choose between maintaining their Constitutionally-protected right to bear arms or relieving their chronic pain and diseases. This is not a choice that anyone should ever have to make.
The irony is that under federal law, both cocaine and methamphetamine are listed as Schedule II drugs. That means that despite their high likelihood for creating dependence, the Drug Enforcement Agency believes that they do serve a medical purpose. While most people use these drugs illegally, federal law allows doctors, in unique circumstances, to prescribe them. This means that it is technically possible for someone to have a prescription for cocaine or methamphetamine and still maintain their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Meanwhile, a cancer patient who uses medicinal marijuana would be charged with a felony if found to be in possession of any firearms.
Even though the federal government has become more lenient in enforcing marijuana laws in states that legalized medicinal and recreational cannabis, the country's firearm laws have not caught up with these medical breakthroughs.
All of the evidence shows that marijuana should be reclassified as Schedule II. Not only would that allow more organizations to conduct research into the drug's medicinal qualities and utility, but it would also protect medical marijuana users' Constitutional rights at the same time.
What do you think? Should medical marijuana users be forced to surrender their guns and give up their right to bear arms? Tell us in the comment section below.
