A federal choose in Oklahoma Metropolis dominated final week {that a} federal regulation that prohibits hashish customers from proudly owning firearms is unconstitutional and should not be enforced by prosecutors. Citing a ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court docket final 12 months that dramatically expanded gun rights, U.S. District Choose Patrick Wyrick dismissed a federal indictment charging an Oklahoma man with violating the ban, ruling that the prohibition denied the defendant of his proper to bear arms assured by the Second Modification to the U.S. Structure.
Below present federal regulation, individuals who use hashish are prohibited from proudly owning or buying firearms as a result of they’re “an illegal consumer of or hooked on” a managed substance. The ban applies to all hashish customers, together with those that use marijuana merchandise which are authorized below state regulation and the Second Modification, which protects the proper to bear arms for all People.
In Might 2022, Jared Michael Harrison was arrested by police in Lawton, Oklahoma after officers discovered marijuana and a loaded revolver in his automobile throughout a visitors cease. Harrison advised police he was on his method to work at a authorized medical marijuana enterprise, though he didn’t have a state-issued identification card authorizing him to make use of hashish medicinally. Federal prosecutors subsequently charged Harrison below the nationwide ban on gun possession by marijuana customers.
Harrison’s attorneys challenged the gun prohibition for hashish customers, arguing that the ban shouldn’t be in line with the nation’s historic custom of regulating firearms. The problem cited a ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court docket final 12 months in a case often called New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation v. Bruen that set new requirements for decoding the Second Modification. Below that ruling, gun restrictions enacted by the federal government should be “in line with this nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation.”
Choose Cites Latest Supreme Court docket Ruling
Wyrick, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, agreed with Harrison’s attorneys and dominated on Friday that the ban is unconstitutional, writing that “the mere use of marijuana carries not one of the traits that the Nation’s historical past and custom of firearms regulation helps.” The choose rejected the argument of federal prosecutors that Harrison’s standing as a marijuana consumer “justifies stripping him of his basic proper to own a firearm” and dominated that the federal ban on gun possession “shouldn’t be a constitutionally permissible technique of disarming Harrison.”
Wyrick additionally famous that the usage of hashish is “not in and of itself a violent, forceful, or threatening act” and that Oklahoma is certainly one of many states that let the medicinal use of marijuana, regardless of the continued illegality of hashish on the federal. Oklahoma voters legalized medical marijuana in 2018, and the state has greater than 2,000 licensed dispensaries the place sufferers can get hold of medical hashish.
Laura Deskin, a public defender representing Harrison, said the ruling was a “step in the proper route for a lot of People who deserve the proper to bear arms and shield their properties identical to every other American.”
Brian Vicente, a founding companion of the hashish and psychedelics regulation agency Vicente Sederberg LLP, stated final week’s court docket resolution in Oklahoma “is a big growth within the rights of hashish shoppers.”
“For many years, and throughout varied states, medical hashish sufferers have been requested to decide on between collaborating of their state’s authorized hashish program or proudly owning a firearm,” Vicente wrote in an electronic mail. “This federal court docket resolution secures the rights of adults to each use hashish and personal weapons and successfully removes the restriction, and related stigma, that these adults face. That is a part of a broader development of conservative states embracing marijuana coverage, with each Alabama and Mississippi establishing medical hashish packages in 2022 and Oklahoma poised to legalize hashish on March 7 of this 12 months.”