Have a license for medical pot? You can't have a gun in U.S.

[BrooklynRedLeg]

1:33 AM, Oct. 1, 2011 | Detroit Free Press

Michigan's medical-marijuana users can't catch a break.

Three major state appeals court decisions have gone against them in the last month. Now, federal authorities have issued an order that licensed medical-marijuana users nationwide can't possess a gun.

That means no hunting, no target shooting, no gun collecting and no guns for personal protection -- even by patients who legally cultivate marijuana crops -- according to a Sept. 21 directive to prosecutors nationwide from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ban is an insult to Michigan's medical-marijuana community, said Rick Thompson, editor of the Chesterfield Township-based Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine.

The magazine is sending a letter to the National Rifle Association "to inform them of their potential loss of membership in 17 medical-marijuana states," including Michigan, and to enlist the NRA's help in fighting the ban, Thompson said.

"A lot of people who hunt are very upset," he said Friday.

But medical-marijuana user William Lisowski, 60, a retired Detroit police officer who lives in Sterling Heights, said guns don't belong around marijuana.

"When you mix the two, you're asking for trouble," Lisowski said.

Restrictions on medical pot grow

Michigan's medical-marijuana users can be evicted from their apartments at any time under a recent opinion by the state attorney general.

A host of other state restrictions are in place or looming for Michiganders who carry state-issued cards to use cannabis for health reasons.

And this week, a federal firearms memo surfaced that says medical-marijuana users fall under nationwide rules against gun ownership by drug abusers.

The tightening restrictions by law enforcement authorities aims "to stop the wave of acceptance of medical marijuana," Detroit defense attorney and registered patient Matt Abel said Friday.

"And that's a fool's errand because there is no going back," he said. "A lot of the population knows now that marijuana works" to alleviate pain and many medical conditions.

The ban on gun use by medical-marijuana patients nationwide came in a U.S. Department of Justice letter sent Sept. 21 to state and county prosecutors across the country. The directive says: "Any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her State has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes ... is prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition."

The letter merely clarifies federal law that has been in effect since 1968, Justice Department spokesman Drew Wade said Friday from Washington.

"People were going into gun stores (in Michigan and elsewhere) and showing these marijuana cards as proof of residence and ID," Wade said. Firearms retailers "were unclear on what to do. The state laws said one thing and federal law said another" about whether such individuals could buy firearms and ammunition, he said.

Medical-marijuana users and their attorneys said they were stunned, while law enforcement authorities said the directive made sense.

"This was all news to me," said medical-marijuana user George Rolando, 50, of Ray Township in northern Macomb County.

"I own shotguns that I've hunted with all my life. Now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Rolando said, adding, "Why are they trying to make me a criminal?"

Abel, the Detroit defense lawyer, who specializes in medical-marijuana cases, said he did not own guns, so he won't feel the ban's effect personally.

"But it's going to put pressure on Congress to evaluate both the gun laws and the drug laws," Abel said. "It'll be great to get the gun rights people on the same side" as the medical-marijuana users, he said.

The gun ban was welcomed by the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, known for aggressive prosecution of medical-marijuana users accused of abusing the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act.

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper "has been saying from the beginning -- our state laws may not shield a marijuana patient or caregiver from federal violations," Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton said this week.

The ban came just as one of Michigan's best-known advocates for medical marijuana and legalizing pot -- Adam Brook, 43, of Royal Oak -- faces a prison term on firearms charges. Although the federal directive did not affect Brook's case -- he was prosecuted under state laws because he possessed guns without a permit -- his case points to the legal problems that can stem from mixing firearms possession with medical-marijuana use, even when the defendant is a state-registered patient as Brook was, his attorney, Jerome Sabbota, said.

Brook was "pushing the envelope" by possessing medical marijuana while keeping unregistered guns in his home, Sabbota said.

Brook was known for the last two decades as the organizer of the annual Hash Bash, a gathering of marijuana smokers that attracts about 5,000 people each April to the University of Michigan campus.

He's also the scion of the defunct Cadillac Luggage family business that occupied the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit for decades.

Brook walks with a cane and said he uses marijuana to ease back pain caused by degenerative disc disease. Brook is to be sentenced Friday after he pleaded guilty to two concealed weapons violations and pleaded no contest to two counts of possessing marijuana with intent to deliver.

"This is all political," Brook said this week. Prosecutors of medical-marijuana patients "make you look like a dope dealer, which is not what I am," he said.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that someone loses their Constitutional right to Keep and Bear Arms without having undergone a trial of some type. Where the hell does the DoJ & BATFE claim the precedent to do this?

[Mr Bean]

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that someone loses their Constitutional right to Keep and Bear Arms without having undergone a trial of some type. Where the hell does the DoJ & BATFE claim the precedent to do this?

Piff he's a Democratic of course he's going to try to think up any excuse on how to take our guns away.
No shit the way this story is being covered elsewhere is as the fact that Obama is taking away people's gun period and full stop. I don't see how Obama could support this regulation as it's the kind of regulation which has nothing but downsides. Those who legally grow pot are not exactly gun toting nutjobs with a history of violence. In fact to even get a licenses in most states to grown marijuana you must have a record more clean than a operating theater. It's far easier to get a full licenses so you can own and sell fully automatic machine guns than it is to grown fifty plants in your backyard.

[Flagg]

I don't see this standing up to judicial review.

[Simon_Jester]

I'm not sure Obama did order this- the article is unclear whether it's a Directive From On High, or some two-bit lawyer in DoJ throwing his weight around.

[JPaganel]

Crap like this likely does not come from the Pres. People tend to give the office more credit than is due. It probably is some bureaucrat safely hidden behind the facade of the system.

[Alyeska]

ATF is making the case on the background check forms that must be filled out for gun ownership and comparing federal law.

The DEA does not recognize state marijuana laws. The ATF has a requirement on the background checks that pertains to illegal drug use. The ATF doesn't give a rats ass what the states think, they follow the drug rules set by the DEA and FDA.

If a state says fully automatic weapons are legal for 5 year olds, is the ATF required to honor that? No.

What is going on is the ATF has waded into the Medical Marijuana issue by siding with the FDA and DEA on the issue. Entirely rational and legal. Until the Federal laws on marijuana change, there is no other legal option.

[Flagg]

Thanks for that, it makes sense now.

[Alyeska]

ATF Form 4473

Section 9.e

They ask about drug use. And the law regarding drug use when it comes to federal standards is set by the DEA and FDA. The ATF already disregards state jurisdiction on what weapons are legal and what weapons are restricted. So they are just following established federal guidelines.

Truth be told, I'm surprised it took them this long to make a decision on the issue.

Another link

[NoXion]

So alcoholics can own firearms, but if one admits to smoking a little ganja every now and then, no guns for you? Double standards and hypocrisy? What's that?

[Flagg]

So alcoholics can own firearms, but if one admits to smoking a little ganja every now and then, no guns for you? Double standards and hypocrisy? What's that?

One is legal and one isn't, that's the rub. And before you say it, I agree that marijuana should be legal if alcohol is.