By: Diane Benjamin
A reader emailed me about cannabis legalization. He currently has a medical cannabis card.
He tried to purchase a 22 caliber rifle to target shoot with his grandkids about a year ago. He failed the background check because of his medical card. A State cop told him he would not pass the background check until he had given up his medical cannabis card for TWO YEARS. His FOID card is still valid. The only way he got into a federal database is by Illinois giving his name to them.
If you plan to buy cannabis when it becomes legal January 1st, what is going to happen to your rights to buy a gun? To purchase it you have to show a valid ID.
Will all buyer’s names end up in the same background check database? Do you want to take that risk?
All of the rules and regulations have yet to be written. I wouldn’t put it past democrats to make purchasers of cannabis in any form ineligible to own a gun. Buy it from government at your own risk.
I think this is the libertarian view:
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve always seen this as a back door gun grab.
what do you expect from liberals? Honesty? Fairness?
Looks like the government has set up a process where it is better to buy from your local dealer.
Read about this a few years ago. People gotta remember that if the government is telling how good it’s gonna be for you, there’s gotta be a catch. It’s no wonder how all of a sudden more and more states were getting on board about legalization with the backdoor lose your 2nd Amendment rights. Duh.
The rule has been on books for awhile, since 1968. The Feds still hold that Marijuana is a controlled substance. Even if used medicinally , as such the ATF doesn’t allow you to purchase a firearm, regardless of state laws,. You think the Trump administration is going to have the ATF overturn that rule when so much of his support is against any type of Marijuana legalization? In any case, I think there is a good amount of people who like guns and weed. And they would agree that the ATF rules are outdated. I know common cause takes your life force away. The Libertarians would agree with you but also note that you are an anti-weed soldier and brush your comments aside as inauthentic.
I’m anti anything that alters the brain. The world has enough really stupid people already.
AMEN to that! and some of them sit on our current city councils! I wonder how much Jen tokes/smokes or nibbles!
So, what will you do if you develop a debilitating pain disease?
The law was rewritten last January and one can have a Medical Marijuana card and an Foid card.
Doesn’t mean you can buy a gun though
Have you EVER met a liberal that goes by ANY laws? I havent
For what ailment does this person have a med marijuana card? If it’s PTSD, that could be why he failed the background check?
No idea
He suffers from Dystonia. He went from using morphine for pain to once a day cannabis. He emailed me.
Yes if he has PTSD he should be forced to give up his treatment for two years . Then it will be better to let him buy guns. We might even get our tax dollars value out of the mental health jail cells we added to the McLean Co. Jail / asylum. We don’t want those to go unused by people getting treated for PTSD.
He doesn’t have PTSD, see other comments.
When Illinois passed medical marijuana, the initial rule making called for For the FOIDs if anyone in the household (card holder or not) to be revoked. This would have caused anyone with a sick family member choosing this option to have to surrender their firearms or become a felon. Fortunately, that part was left out of the final rules. However, it’s still ridiculous.
Love it when Libbies have to make tough choices–back the stoners, or back the gun grabbers. I’m betting they screw the gun owners, they hate the Constitution more than they like the potheads.
….and the State swirls into the toilet.
Welp.
I guess the local dealers won’t be going out of business anytime soon then.
Just for everyone’s information; the link below is an ATF fact sheet from 2011 that addresses this very issue. The gist is when you buy a firearm, you have to fill out a federal ATF form. On that form, is asks if you use cannabis. Lying on the form is a federal offense. I have not been able to find anywhere that the states are transmitting medical cannabis card information to the ATF, the issue seems to be this form that comports with federal law.
https://www.atf.gov/file/60211/download
Last I heard, possession of marijuana is still illegal in all 50 states due to federal law. A federal agency (ATF) enforces federal laws.
I don’t follow drug laws closely, so maybe something has changed recently.
States are defying federal law
If one is known to be a violator of federal law, one ought not be surprised at failing a federal background check.
The government really did a lot of people a disservice when they threw everyone with chronic pain diseases off of opiates. The abusers were the doctors who handed them out like candy to people who really didn’t need them. These patients usually had a temporary condition of mild to moderate pain, that usually resolved itself, but they became addicted and abused the drug. Chronic pain patients with debilitating pain usually don’t become addicted and are able to use the opiate responsibly. But, they lumped us all together, and Medical Cannabis is all we have now, and I have to say it is effective. I still have my FOID. I was told I just can’t get a CCW.
I’ve been on medical cannabis for a few yrs now, I had no choice a the opiates I was on for a very painful disease I received from another drug I was given while inpatient in a hospital, The drug administered buy the hospital stripped the coating off my nerves from head to toe. I was and still on over 15 medications, due to nerve disease, diastolic heart failure, and ascending aortic aneurism. I was one one opiate and one synthetic opiate for pain control, but when they clamped down on opiates, I had two choices, either the Fentanyl patch ( go figure they’d keep the nastiest drug) which I refused because of high death rate or medical cannabis. So far, the high THC edibles reduces the pain to a manageable level. I still have my FOID. I was told. I can’t apply for a CCW, but I can hold a FOID. From what I’ve read, the feds will be reclassifying cannabis sometime down the road. Personally, I think if u are denied your second amendment rights for medical cannabis use, then one should be denied their rights for the consumption of alcohol.
We are talking about Illinois State approved Medical Cannabis. So what is next. Will we have to release all of our Physician prescribed medications to the federal government to use our 2nd amendment rights.