Guns & Marijuana: States Rights vs. The Federal Leviathan

Isn't this delicious! An overbearing, overreaching, authoritarian federal government finally notices that marijuana...one of the left's sacraments...is still a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance. And I can't think of a better example of cognitive dissonance for both the feds AND the stoners!

Here is the text of question 21-G on form 4473, the federal form that everyone purchasing a weapon through a federal firearms license holder must complete.

Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.

ATF: Until recreational cannabis is federally legalized, pot users cannot own guns

The federal agency that regulates the firearms industry sent an advisory on Tuesday warning that Minnesotans who use marijuana cannot legally own firearms, despite a new state law legalizing recreational use.

Marijuana for adults is now legal in 23 states and even more have medical cannabis programs. But it's still a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law on par with LSD and heroin.

The St. Paul office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives noted that distinction. It means people who smoke weed or take marijuana edibles are "still federally defined as an 'unlawful user' of a controlled substance," and therefore are "prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition," the agency said in its release Tuesday.

But...part of me (most of me) is disgusted that there is even a form 4473, an ATF, and any restrictions on weapons purchases in the United States, except perhaps for violent felons. And I am comfortable discussing even that!

This conundrum also calls into question the supremacy of the federal government, its involvement in drug regulation, which the last time I checked wasn't mentioned in the U.S. Constitution as one of its powers.

The delightfully amusing reality is that the states are legalizing marijuana, and there isn't much the feds can do about it. My personal stance is that it is a bad idea...I think marijuana has corrosive effects on society, has been mostly ignored by scientific research from that point of view, and I believe it will be shown to be much less benign in the coming years.

But any time a state can stick its thumb in the federal eye is just A-OK with me.

posted by CBD at 12:00 PM

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