Justices on the Supreme Court will decide whether the federal government can bar cannabis consumers from lawfully possessing firearms. Today, the Court agreed to hear arguments from the Justice Department, which is appealing a 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision that found the blanket ban to be unconstitutional.
For decades, the US government has held that the 1968 federal law prohibiting the possession or sale of a firearm to an “unlawful user” of a federally controlled substance should be applied broadly to criminalize gun owners with any history of marijuana use.
However, several lower courts have recently questioned the constitutionality of the federal ban. In September, judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal prohibition does not apply to patients who possess medical cannabis in compliance with state laws. That case was brought by former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (who now serves as a member of NORML’s Board of Directors) and several medical cannabis patients.
Members of the NORML Legal Committee (NLC) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the case, opining, “Neither the Founders, Framers, nor elected leaders of the United States, all of whom had intimate knowledge of the role of cannabis cultivation and consumption in the colonies and new nation, took any legislative action to disarm cannabis consumers of the right to bear arms.”
In 2023, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals similarly ruled that citizens cannot be disarmed “based exclusively on [one’s] past drug usage.” Members of NORML’s Legal Committee also filed an amicus brief in that case.
NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that the Supreme Court will provide long-overdue clarity to the issue. “For far too long, the government has treated cannabis consumers like second class citizens,” he said. “Neither past nor current cannabis use should automatically preclude someone from legal protections explicitly provided by the US Constitution. Responsible cannabis consumers, and particularly those residing in jurisdictions where marijuana is legally regulated, must no longer be threatened with federal prosecution and prison simply for exercising their 2nd Amendment rights.”
NORML’s amicus briefs are available in NORML’s Legal Brief Bank.
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