Medical marijuana may have been legalized in Missouri, but those who opt to take advantage will be jeopardizing their Second Amendment right to buy and possess a gun.
Under federal law, Missouri residents won’t legally be able to have a license for medical marijuana and possess a firearm at the same time, even though voters overwhelmingly added Amendment 2 to the Missouri Constitution on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote a 2011 open letter that explains federal law on guns and marijuana. John Ham, public information officer with the ATF’s Kansas City Field Division, said the mandates outlined in the letter still apply.
Anyone who is an “unlawful user of or addicted to” any controlled substance is prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition, the letter says.
“The actual language is there’s no exception under federal law for medicinal marijuana,” Ham told the News-Leader Thursday morning. “That sums up the entire letter.”
From the federal perspective, state law on marijuana doesn’t matter.
“Marijuana is listed in the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I controlled substance,” the ATF letter says, “and there are no exceptions in federal law for marijuana purportedly used for medicinal purposes, even if such use is sanctioned by state law.”
It’s also against federal law to sell a firearm or ammunition to anyone “knowing or having reasonable cause to believe” that the buyer is an “unlawful user,” according to the letter.
Having a state-issued license to possess and use medical marijuana would count as reasonable cause to suspect the licensee of being an “unlawful user” under federal law, even if the person with the license obtained it legally, according to the letter.
Ham said that his office has not yet had many calls from Missouri residents asking questions about medical marijuana and gun ownership, but that as Amendment 2 is implemented, he expects to hear more questions.
In the coming weeks, Ham said, the ATF plans to reach out to federal firearms licensees — e.g., gun shops and other dealers — so that they are informed.
“We’ll ensure that we make the federal law clear with them and get questions answered,” Ham said.
The issue of gun ownership and marijuana has been a consistent question across the country. Since California voters adopted medical marijuana in 1996, more than 30 states have legalized marijuana in some way, in defiance of federal law.
In 2016, the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, often considered a liberal-leaning court, ruled that the federal prohibition on marijuana users possessing guns does not violate the Second Amendment.
The News-Leader reached out to the National Rifle Association for comment but has not yet heard back.
Will federal law ever allow for legal cannabis? That’s up to Congress.
More than 50 marijuana-related bills were introduced in Congress in 2017-2018, the Cannabis Business Times reported in July, including two bills from Democratic senators that would remove marijuana from the federal controlled substances list.
In June, Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner teamed up with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren to introduce a bill that would end the federal ban on weed and exempt state-regulated marijuana markets from the federal Controlled Substances Act.
President Donald Trump said he will “probably will end up supporting” Gardner and Warren’s bill, USA TODAY reported.
Credit: www.news-leader.com
