Mixing medical marijuana, gun ownership creates confusion |

With differing state and federal legal guidelines, confusion surrounds the legality of possessing each a gun and a medical card for marijuana.  

Based on Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco type 4473, which determines whether or not an individual can get a gun, marijuana stays illegal by federal legislation. Prospects in a gun retailer need to fill out an ATF type underneath oath and it particularly asks about marijuana use, stated Chris McHugh, an legal professional and CEO of Vertical, a medical marijuana dispensary firm.

“So if you’re being sincere about that type, you wouldn’t get that gun,” he stated. “They (the gun retailer) received’t promote it to you. They’ll’t underneath federal legislation. In the event you lie on that type, then it’s a criminal offense, mendacity underneath oath. So you’re in somewhat little bit of a pickle.”

Capt. Shawn Collie with the Buchanan County Drug Strike Power stated there may be nonetheless a whole lot of confusion on this situation for legislation enforcement. He stated officers refer circumstances involving weapons and medical marijuana to authorized counsel to see what legal guidelines are in place. He stated most appellate courts have upheld that utilizing marijuana for any purpose prohibits having a firearm.

“And instances like this with medical marijuana and firearms is we have now the battle of state legislation and federal legislation and the confusion there,” Collie stated.

He defined that underneath federal legislation, marijuana remains to be a drug regardless that it could be authorized in some states, and firearm regulation is managed by the federal authorities. Collie stated there must be a push from residents to have legal guidelines “cleaned up” by the state or federal legislators.

“We have now sufficient legal guidelines on the books,” Collie stated. “We’re not asking for brand new legal guidelines to be made or created. However sadly, we have now legal guidelines which can be outdated and we have now legal guidelines that should be up to date and introduced as much as the place we’re in time now.”

Collie stated legislation enforcement personnel are caught within the center and making an attempt to find out what authorized recommendation they’re getting. After they implement legal guidelines, he stated they achieve this primarily based on what’s in place and never their private opinion.

“(For this example), we’re seeing the … far left, the far proper, either side has all their opinions after which you might have us within the center,” he stated.