MMJ Patients Have No Gun Rights: Federal Court Rules on Nikki Fried’s Second Amendment Lawsuit
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A federal court dismissed Nikki Fried’s second amendment lawsuit against the federal government, which wanted to allow medical marijuana patients to purchase and own firearms.
Fried is Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
US District Judge Allen Winsor wrote in Friday’s decision that “Florida’s medical marijuana users are ‘illegal users.'[s] from . . . [a] controlled substance’, so this law makes it a crime for them to possess firearms.”
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Fried announced the lawsuit at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Miami Beach on April 20. known as a cannabis holiday.
The lawsuit argues that there is a conflict between state and federal law and that federal policy requires medical marijuana card (MMJ) holders to choose between their constitutional right to the MMJ and their second amendment right.
“No patient should have to choose between medicine and employment, a roof over their head, access to capital or their constitutional rights,” Fried said, adding that the country’s marijuana policy is “irrational, contradictory and incoherent.”
RELATED: Why do medical cannabis and gun ownership rights so often clash?
Fried, a medical marijuana cardholder and gun owner, explained that MMJ patients are charged with a felony if they lie about their marijuana use on a federal firearm application.
In July, Fried’s attorneys and other plaintiffs argued that following the recent SCOTUS ruling, current federal policy, which bans those who admit to using marijuana on a background check, could not be enforced.
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In August, the DOJ asked a federal court to dismiss Fried’s lawsuit, arguing that it is too “dangerous to trust regular marijuana users to exercise sound judgment.”
RELATED: Florida marijuana and gun lawsuit heats up: DOJ compares weed users to domestic abusers
Fried said she was disappointed that the DOJ decided to “double down on harmful prohibition policies. The DOJ’s argument is as offensive as it is inaccurate.”
“I will never stop looking for unconventional ways that we can take this fight forward until we achieve full and equitable legalization,” Fried said at the time.
Cancellation Highlights
Now, several months after the DOJ asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, the verdict has come, with the federal court siding with the DOJ. The heart of the judge’s ruling lies in the argument that although medical marijuana has been legalized at the state level, people who use cannabis are engaged in illegal activity at the federal level. This sets the precedent to disprove their gun rights.
“Laws keeping guns away from the mentally ill also flow from the historical tradition of keeping guns away from those in whose hands they might be dangerous,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiffs shy away from being compared to the mentally ill … but one doesn’t have to label marijuana users as mentally ill to realize that both categories of people can be dangerous when armed. Although the ban reaches those who habitually use marijuana (even if they are not currently under the influence), habitual drug users are analogous to other groups that the government has historically found too dangerous to own guns.”
Furthermore, Winsor stated that this right can be restored, saying, “Illegal drug users can regain their Second Amendment rights simply by quitting their drug use.”
This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.
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