Florida marijuana and gun lawsuit heats up: DOJ compares cannabis users to domestic abusers

Through Jelena Martinovic

The Justice Department has struck again. The ongoing Florida lawsuit over whether medical cannabis users should also have the right to own guns received more comment recently when the DOJ claimed that MMJ users are inherently dangerous and therefore incapable of owning firearms , reported Marijuana Moment.

“[The DOJ is] now we are comparing cannabis users to domestic abusers with a ‘proneness’ to violence,” reads the publication.

Attorneys representing Florida Secretary of Agriculture Nikki Fried, who is behind a second amendment lawsuit against the Biden administration, filed a response letter earlier this month after the Justice Department asked the federal court to dismiss the case. The plaintiffs requested a hearing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

In its original motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the DOJ cited offensive “parallels to previous gun bans for groups such as Native Americans, Catholics, beggars and those who refuse to take an oath of allegiance to the government, and people who shoot while intoxicated.” ”

Now the DOJ has confirmed its stance by putting nonviolent cannabis offenses in the same category as domestic violence. The aim of the settlement was to justify the disarmament of the accused.

“Marijuana users also engage in criminal activity that makes gun ownership dangerous, albeit for different reasons (ie, the propensity for violence in domestic violence criminals and the debilitating effects of marijuana on marijuana users),” the new filing reads of the DOJ.

Photo by Talaj/Getty Images

To plaintiffs’ argument that cannabis users “can safely use a firearm…when not using marijuana or under the influence of marijuana,” the DOJ responded that “a marijuana user who owns a firearm has access to that firearm if.” he uses marijuana. And because marijuana impairs judgment, there’s a risk that she’ll fail in her judgment and use the gun while she’s impaired.”

background

Fried filed a second amendment lawsuit against the Biden administration in April, which it presented at the 4/20 Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Miami.

“No patient should have to choose between medicine and employment, a roof over their head, access to capital or their constitutional rights,” she said.

Since then, Fried has pointed out on several occasions that the constitutional rights of state-licensed medical marijuana patients in Florida are restricted due to current language on a federal form prohibiting them from purchasing a firearm.

“This isn’t about guns per se,” Fried said in June. “This is about the fact that marijuana patients have been discriminated against for decades — that they see their rights not being fully granted, whether it’s housing or access to banks or employment. And that is one of their other rights.”

In July, Fried filed a revised complaint in a federal district court after the Supreme Court ruled to dismiss several cases and remanded them to lower courts for retrial. These cases included bans on assault rifles in Maryland and large-capacity ammunition magazines in New Jersey and California. The Supreme Court’s move followed a landmark ruling that found a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for the purpose of self-defense is protected by the US Constitution.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.