The Maryland Senate passed a bill that protects gun rights under state law for medical marijuana users. It was sent to the House of Delegates.
The Senate passed the bill of Sen. Mike McKay, R., with a vote of 43-2 on Tuesday. There was no discussion. The Senate approved the legislation without discussion on Tuesday, with a vote of 43-2. This was a week after cleared the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
The measure, if enacted by Maryland, would allow registered medical cannabis patients the right to own, carry and buy firearms, despite federal restrictions.
Maryland’s legislature took up this issue at the same time last year. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss a separate, but related proposal that would protect the gun rights of medical marijuana patients.
In recent years, marijuana and gun rights activists have challenged the constitutionality of the federal law that prevents cannabis users from owning firearms.
In Pennsylvania, a district prosecutor filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department last month, alleging that the ban violates the Second Amendment right of medical cannabis patients like himself.
Recently, a Republican Senator in Pennsylvania said that he would introduce legislation to remove state laws that prohibit medical marijuana patients from carrying firearms.
The South Dakota governor signed into law a bill that requires patients to mark a box when applying for a medical marijuana card affirming they are aware of federal law prohibiting cannabis consumers from purchasing and possessing firearms.
In numerous federal court cases, the federal Justice Department insisted that cannabis users should not be allowed to possess guns. They argued at times that marijuana users pose a unique risk, similar to allowing people with mental illnesses to possess firearms.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether to take up the question of the constitutionality of the federal gun prohibition for marijuana users.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide if they will hear the federal government’s appeal of a Circuit Court ruling which found that the firearm restriction was in violation of the Second Amendment.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit made the ruling after examining the federal law known as Section 902(g)(3). This statute prohibits anyone who is a “unlawful drug user” from purchasing or possessing firearms. The court ruled that the policy was unconstitutional when it applied to a man convicted for using cannabis while in possession a firearm.
A little-noticed FBI memo from 2019, which recently surfaced, shows that the federal government does not generally consider it a crime for medical cannabis caregivers or growers to own guns .
In the first half of the current two-year legislative session, Republican lawmakers filed two bills that focused on marijuana and gun policy.
Rep. Brian Mast, co-chairman of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and a member of the House of Representatives, introduced legislation last year that would protect the Second Amendment right of marijuana users in states where the drug is legal. This legislation would allow them to buy and possess firearms, which they are currently prohibited to have under federal law.
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (DNY) has promised to attach that legislation to the bipartisan marijuana banking bill , which advanced out of committee last September.
Mast is also sponsoring a separate Bill from Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), in this session, which would allow medical marijuana patients to buy and possess firearms.
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The article Maryland Senate approves bill to protect medical marijuana patients’ gun rights first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
