November 21 – Under federal law, if you have a medical marijuana card, you are not allowed to own a gun.
There are also an array of other laws that say at any time you cannot be under the influence of any substance that impairs your ability and be using a firearm.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “This is a, I don’t want to say it’s a gray area because the law is clear, but it’s gray in as much that more and more people are getting marijuana cards and it’s one of these areas of the law where maybe the legislation both at the state and federal level has not caught up with the reality on the ground all over America.”
Interestingly, it’s possible that the medical marijuana card information is not included in the background checks on getting a firearm.
Barkdoll noted, “There are voluntary disclosures that one may make, but I’m not sure that in the national database that there’s any way that law enforcement would pick that up. I should say though that if someone’s thinking okay then I just won’t tell them, it’s a felony. If you lie on one of those forms, that’s considered a government affidavit. It’s a felony crime. You actually could go to jail simply for lying on the application form.”
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “I’m going to get really cynical here. What a great way to stop gun ownership in the United States then to convince everybody, oh legalize marijuana. It’s such a great idea. Recreational. It’s even healthy for you. And get people addicted to this very addictive substance and now you can’t own a gun. That’s a great way to make sure a certain amount of the population has to be gun free.”
Although it all really only applies to a medical marijuana card.
Barkdoll said, “If you’re in a state where it’s legal, I mean I could go into the local dispensary if it’s recreationally legal and buy whatever and eat it or smoke it. I don’t have the medical marijuana permit. That’s going to be okay. That would not prohibit me from owning the gun, but again, technically under the federal law if you possess the medical marijuana permit, you can’t be a gun owner at the same time. It’s clearly a conflict that Congress and states for that matter have not reconciled.”
“Well that’s insane,” Jansen said. “That’s absolutely insane because oh I needed it for medical purposes, which is all a farce because most of the people who get a medical marijuana card don’t need it for medical purposes. We’ve known this for years. Most of them are young men in an age range that wouldn’t be the type that would need it for pain and things like that. What I’m afraid of then is all the reasoning for making it illegal for medical marijuana will be extended to anyone who has marijuana.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “You got your recreational marijuana going on and then here comes Josh Shapiro and Fetterman with the Red Flag laws.”
Jansen continued, “I also have to be concerned. I wish we could get more information on this 22-year-old that plowed into those running cadets, but one early report is that they did find marijuana in his system. So if you’re that out of control or unable to understand reality when you’re using marijuana that you’re driving the wrong way and you plow into people running, you shouldn’t be firing a gun, quite frankly.”
Barkdoll said, “It’s just this fascinating conflict, legally, that more and more states, including Maryland, just legalized recreational marijuana, yet it’s still technically illegal at the federal level to possess or consume marijuana. This has been a conflict for years now.”
It’s not really being enforced at the federal level. In fact, President Biden recently pardoned 6,500 people that had been convicted of federal marijuana offenses for possessing the drug in national parks or on federal property over the years.
Barkdoll said, “Almost half of the country now has legalized some form of recreational marijuana.”
