Matthew T. Mangino
GateHouse Media
January 12, 2018
Pennsylvania residents can now legally use marijuana for
medical purposes. Some 10,000 Pennsylvanians are now literally card-carrying
marijuana users. If you have the card you can access marijuana for any one of
17 different serious health conditions.
That is great news for people with cancer, epilepsy or
Crohn’s disease to name a few. The news is not so good for gun buyers or owners
who need cannabis treatment.
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette put it, ”(S)ome sick people
will have to make a difficult decision: Is taking the medicine worth
surrendering what gun-owning advocates see as an enshrined constitutional
right?”
Under federal law, all forms of marijuana use remains a
crime. The Drug Enforcement Administration considers marijuana a Schedule 1
drug, in the same category with cocaine, heroin and LSD. Marijuana and the
other illicit drugs remain illegal on a federal level because there are “no
currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
As a result, marijuana use eliminates an individual from
buying or owning a gun. The names of those card-carrying marijuana users will
have their name in a Pennsylvania database that will be accessible to gun
dealers.
If a name comes up as a marijuana user, the individual is
disqualified from purchasing a firearm. In fact, the U.S Justice Department
keeps records of gun purchases and the application asks specific questions
about marijuana use, with the following warning:
“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.”
Evidently the federal government doesn’t realize that 29
states and Washington, D.C. have legalized some form of marijuana use.
What’s worse — in a state with a long history of vigorously
defending the Second Amendment — Ryan Tarkowski, a spokesman for the
Pennsylvania State Police told the Post-Gazette “It’s unlawful to keep
possession of firearms obtained prior to registering.”
The police can confiscate a registered marijuana user’s gun.
The feds don’t seem to be backing off. Last week, Attorney
General Jeff Sessions announced that previous Obama-era policies of
non-interference with states that have legalized marijuana are “unnecessary.”
In a memo, the attorney general called marijuana “dangerous”
and activity surrounding the drug to be a “serious crime.”
He has encouraged U.S. Attorneys to vigorously pursue
illegal drug cases including those that involve the use and distribution of
marijuana.
The problem is reverberating nationwide. The Maryland State
Police, who oversee gun ownership in the state, ask prospective gun buyers if
they have a medical marijuana card. According to the Baltimore Sun, buyers must
allow the state health department to disclose whether they have applied for a
card.
The Honolulu Police Department’s plan to confiscate guns
from medical marijuana users has been put on hold. The police sent a series of
letters to medical marijuana card holders, demanding they surrender all
firearms. According to Hawaii News Now, the policy has been met with strong
opposition and will be reevaluated by state police officials.
The National Rifle Association has not taken a position on
the issue, yet. With nearly 60 percent of states authorizing marijuana for
medicinal or recreational purposes the gun issue is not going away. This has
the ability to pit long-time “law and order” pols against NRA supporters who
are also reliable benefactors.
Must one be forced to choose between medicine and a gun?
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe has made it clear—not in his state.
“The federal government needs to do the right thing here,”
Wolfe told Public Radio’s WESA-FM in Pittsburgh. “We’re not going to take their
[medical marijuana users] guns away.”
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by
McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him
on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
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