{"id":15514,"date":"2019-07-02T19:12:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T19:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=15514"},"modified":"2020-03-04T19:31:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T19:31:23","slug":"pennsylvania-state-police-urge-gun-owners-to-give-up-firearms-to-get-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2019\/07\/pennsylvania-state-police-urge-gun-owners-to-give-up-firearms-to-get-medical-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania State Police Urge Gun Owners To Give Up Firearms To Get Medical Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you’re a gun-owning Pennsylvania resident, the Pennsylvania State Police are urging\u00a0you to turn in\u00a0your firearms if\u00a0you\u00a0are seeking medical marijuana cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sorry, what?<\/span><\/h3>\n

A\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0from the Pennsylvania State Police’s website is receiving a lot of local attention over what appears to be\u00a0an erroneous statement concerning state and federal law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement reads:<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is unlawful for you to keep possession of any firearms which you owned or had in your possession prior to obtaining a medical marijuana card, and you should consult an attorney about the best way to dispose of your firearms.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to the\u00a0Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>, state police spokesman Ryan Tarkowski suggested seeking legal counsel if a citizen possesses firearms before seeking and receiving medical marijuana.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s unlawful to keep possession of firearms obtained prior to registering,” Tarkowski said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Pennsylvania State Police is not in the business of offering legal advice, but it might be a good idea to contact an attorney about how best to dispose of their firearms,” Tarkowski suggested.<\/span><\/p>\n

Criminal defense attorney Patrick Nightingale told\u00a0KDKA-TV<\/a>\u00a0on Monday that the suggestions being pushed by the state police disturb him.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It disturbs me greatly to see the Pennsylvania State Police put on their website references to federal law while ignoring the fact that it is legal under Pennsylvania law,” Nightingale said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Firearms are woven into the fabric of our country,” Nightingale added. “It\u2019s the second most important right in the Bill of Rights.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s the catch<\/span><\/h3>\n

According to Pennsylvania state law, the use of medical marijuana is legal, and\u00a0not a hindrance to owning a firearm<\/a>. However, according to the\u00a0state police website<\/a>, Pennsylvania’s legalization of medical marijuana is not federally recognized.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to\u00a018 U.S.C. \u00a7 922(g)(3)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a027 C.F.R. \u00a7 478.32(a)(3)<\/a>, possession of a medical marijuana card\u00a0and the use of medical marijuana determines that a citizen is an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Federal law prohibits an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from purchasing, acquiring, or possessing a firearm.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, federal law says it is\u00a0illegal<\/a>\u00a0for a citizen to attempt the purchase of a firearm if\u00a0they are a medical marijuana cardholder.<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn’t new information: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has held the position\u00a0since 2011<\/a>\u00a0that no one in possession of a medical marijuana card may also legally own a firearm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally speaking, state police cannot enforce federal law unless a statute gives them express permission to do so.\u00a0Pennsylvania law<\/a>\u00a0is somewhat ambiguous on this point, allowing the PSP make arrests “for all violations of the law,” without specifying whether this includes federal law.<\/span><\/p>\n

If marijuana is considered a controlled substance \u2014 much like opioids \u2014\u00a0then\u00a0one might wonder why are opioid users permitted to own firearms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney Andrew Sacks, co-chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association\u2019s Medical Marijuana and Hemp Law Committee, told the\u00a0Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>\u00a0the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s hypocritical,” Sacks said. “You can be an opioid addict, or buy a bottle of rum, drink it and go to a store and buy one. But a person who is registered as a medical marijuana patient in Pennsylvania, and has a very small dosage of THC, can\u2019t own a gun to protect themselves or hunt.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/news\/2018\/01\/03\/pennsylvania-state-police-urge-gun-owners-to-give-up-firearms-to-get-medical-marijuana<\/a> January 2018<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re a gun-owning Pennsylvania resident, the Pennsylvania State Police are urging\u00a0you to turn in\u00a0your firearms if\u00a0you\u00a0are seeking medical marijuana cards. Sorry, what? A\u00a0statement\u00a0from the Pennsylvania State Police’s website is receiving a lot of local attention over what appears to be\u00a0an erroneous statement concerning state and federal law. The statement reads: “It is unlawful for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,90,12,60,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-violence-prison","category-global-drug-legalisation-efforts","category-legal-sector","category-marijuana-and-medicine","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}