Representatives of the lobby group Gun Owners of America have called upon federal officials to cease stripping medical cannabis patients of their 2nd Amendment rights.
In a recent post on X, the group announced: “President Trump just ordered that marijuana be reclassified from Schedule I to Schedule III. GOA is calling on ATF to cease treating Americans who are [authorized to use] marijuana as ‘unlawful users of controlled substances’ and federally prohibited from possessing firearms.”
For decades, the US government has held that the 1968 federal law prohibiting the possession or sale of a firearm to an “unlawful user” of a federally controlled substance should be applied broadly to criminalize gun owners with any history of marijuana use.
However, several lower courts have recently issued rulings challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban. For example, in September, judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal prohibition does not apply to patients who possess medical cannabis in compliance with state laws. That case was brought by former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (who now serves as a member of NORML’s Board of Directors) and several medical cannabis patients.
In March, justices on the US Supreme Court will hear arguments from the Justice Department, which is appealing a 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision that similarly determined the blanket ban to be unconstitutional. Members of NORML’s amicus committee, which previously filed briefs in several other lower court cases, are expected to file a brief in the case.
“For far too long, the government has treated cannabis consumers like second class citizens,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Neither past nor current cannabis use should automatically preclude someone from legal protections explicitly provided by the US Constitution. Responsible cannabis consumers, and particularly those residing in jurisdictions where marijuana is legally regulated, must no longer be threatened with federal prosecution and prison simply for exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.”
For additional information, see NORML’s primer on cannabis rescheduling, Cannabis Rescheduling: Separating Fact From Fiction. NORML’s prior amicus briefs are archived in NORML’s Legal Brief Bank.