It’s not only consumers’ 2nd Amendment rights that are under assault. Historically, governments have sought to deny cannabis consumers many other rights as well, including their right to use the medicine that works best for them, or to exercise their freedom to choose to relax with a substance that’s objectively safer than alcohol. And every step of the way, NORML has been there to fight back on their behalf.
“The government may not categorically disarm responsible adults solely because they use cannabis, absent any showing of habitual use and dangerousness. The Second Amendment protects individuals, not status-based classifications, and the historical tradition the Court requires does not support such a blanket prohibition.”
“The historical analogs the government identifies concern temporary restrictions on carrying or firing weapons while intoxicated or on persons adjudged dangerous — not blanket bans on all users of a disfavored substance.”
Justices determined, “Marijuana user or not, [the defendant] is a member of our political community and thus has a presumptive right to bear arms. By infringing on that right, 922(g)(3) contradicts the Second Amendment’s plain text.”
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has accepted NORML’s ‘friend of the court’ amicus brief in a case that seeks to protect the Second Amendment rights of state-authorized medical cannabis patients.