More States Deny Cannabis Patients the Right to Bear Arms
Authorities in states like Pennsylvania and Hawaii won’t be allowing medical cannabis consumers to possess firearms as long as cannabis is considered a Schedule I substance.
The Honolulu Police Department in the state of Hawaii is asking medical cannabis patients to surrender their firearms. This was carried out in the form of a letter sent by the Honolulu Police Department to local cannabis patients ordering a “voluntary surrender” of all firearms. The letter signed by Police Chief Susan Ballard expressed, “your medical marijuana use disqualifies you from ownership of firearms and ammunition,” and stated recipients had exactly 30 days to turn in the items to the police department. In order to reclaim their firearms, patients must get another approval from their physicians to do so.
Authorities in Pennsylvania have also made it clear to its residents that it will be an “automatic no” for medical cannabis patients who apply for firearm ownership. Those who truthfully admit to cannabis consumption will not be asked if the consumption is legal or approved by a medical physician. There is no background check done to further look into whether or not medical status is the reason for cannabis consumption, thus immediately denying all cannabis patients. “There are no exceptions in federal law,” said Joshua E. Jackson, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Unfortunately, cannabis still remains a Schedule I substance under federal law, a ranking shared with hallucinogens, LSD and heroin. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, all these substances, cannabis included, have a “high potential for abuse.” Not only does this classification strip the rights of citizens who responsibly consume cannabis, this technicality also implies that using cannabis to medicate is equivalent to taking a drug as detrimental as heroin. Just last year the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals further clarified that banning gun sales to cannabis consumers did not breach the Second Amendment.
On the application for gun ownership approval, the form asks if the applicant is “an unlawful user of, or addicted to marijuana.” Those who have been issued medical licenses from their doctors to medicate with cannabis have done so legally under state law, yet federal law gets the final say on what is classified as legal consumption. Until federal law evolves to either allow an exception for medical cannabis or remove cannabis from the Schedule I substance classification overall, cannabis consumers will be barred from exercising their second amendment rights.
