Florida\u2019s agriculture commissioner on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, arguing that the federal government is unconstitutionally depriving medical cannabis patients of their Second Amendment right to purchase and possess firearms.<\/p>\n
The suit from Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), who is also running for governor<\/a>, also makes a unique legal argument that a congressional spending rider preventing the use of Justice Department funds to interfere in the implementation of medical marijuana programs means that the feds can\u2019t deny patients their right to bear arms.<\/p>\n As it stands, in order to buy a gun, people are required to fill out a federal form that explicitly asks about the use of illegal drugs\u2014including cannabis. Those who admit to marijuana use are ineligible to make the purchase and could face up to five years in prison if they lie, regardless of state cannabis laws.<\/p>\n I\u2019m suing the Biden Administration because people\u2019s rights are being limited. Medical marijuana is legal. Guns are legal. <\/p>\n This is about people\u2019s rights and their freedoms to responsibly have both. <\/p>\n https:\/\/t.co\/8ItPeQrPeL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) April 20, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cTo be clear, I am in no way challenging the federal government\u2019s right to enact reasonable gun regulations that protect the public,\u201d Fried said at a press briefing on Wednesday. \u201cIn fact, I believe the federal government needs to take more common sense actions to keep families and communities safe from the senseless and horrific gun violence that has tragically impacted our state over the years. And my record speaks for itself on this. But denying the Second Amendment rights of medical marijuana patients is not about safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Fried brought the lawsuit alongside two medical marijuana patients in the state, as well as Neill Franklin, a retired police officer and former executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) who has declined to use medical cannabis despite its therapeutic value for pain he experiences because of the potential gun rights ramifications.<\/p>\n The lawsuit is directed at Attorney General Merrick Garland and the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).<\/p>\n \u201cThe importance here is a person should not have to forfeit their Second Amendment rights afforded to them, spelled out in the Constitution,\u201d Franklin told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s up with the federal government? Why do they not see this? What is the problem?\u201d he said, adding that the feds \u201cshouldn\u2019t be putting people in these types of circumstances where you have to choose one or the other: their Second Amendment right or using cannabis to deal with whatever their medical condition is.\u201d<\/p>\n Fried, for her part, said that there\u2019s \u201cno evidence that medical marijuana use of use makes individuals more dangerous or violent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this is, plain and simple, is yet another violation of medical marijuana patients\u2019 rights due to discrepancies in cannabis laws, punishing them for state-legal activity without a reasonable basis to do so,\u201d the commissioner, whose department has some jurisdiction over firearms in the state, said.<\/p>\n The lawsuit, first reported<\/a> by NBC News, states that the DOJ and ATF\u2019s \u201cirrational, inconsistent, and incoherent federal marijuana policy undermines Florida\u2019s medical marijuana and firearms laws and prevents Commissioner Fried from ensuring that Floridians receive the state rights relating to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Denying Second Amendment rights to people who lawfully use medical marijuana in compliance with state law \u201cdoes not survive any level of appropriate legal scrutiny,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n A key component of the legal challenge is based on a unique interpretation of a congressional spending bill rider known as the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which prevents the Justice Department from using federal funds to interfere in the implementation of state medical cannabis programs.<\/p>\n By preventing people like Franklin from using medical marijuana without risking the loss of their right to buy firearms, the federal government is effectively violating that rider by blocking Florida from adding new patients to grow its program, the suit says.<\/p>\n The suit seeks to enjoin the federal agencies from enforcing the gun ban based on state-legal medical marijuana use on the basis that the policy violates the Second Amendment and the congressional rider.<\/p>\n It also specifically challenges the justification of the ban, arguing that marijuana use does not make a person more inclined to violent or dangerous behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Defendants were correct that medical marijuana use led to increased violent behavior, then it would be reasonable to expect that pertinent violent crime statistics would bear that out,\u201d it says. \u201cHowever, as these facts and evidence to be elicited at trial will show, they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, ATF issued an advisory specifically targeting Michigan<\/a> that requires gun sellers to conduct federal background checks on all unlicensed gun buyers because it said the state\u2019s cannabis laws had enabled \u201chabitual marijuana users\u201d and other disqualified individuals to obtain firearms illegally.<\/p>\n There have been previous efforts in Congress to specifically protect medical cannabis patients against losing their right to purchase and possess guns, but those efforts have not been enacted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back in Florida, the commissioner has closely aligned herself with the cannabis reform movement, backing legalization and working to support the state\u2019s hemp industry.<\/p>\n For example, the department she oversees recently announced a scholarship essay contest<\/a> where Florida students from grades 4-12 are being invited to brainstorm new uses for hemp.<\/p>\n Fried has publicly stated that she\u2019s a medical cannabis cardholder in the state, and she previously\u00a0lobbied<\/a>\u00a0on behalf of a plant farm that was later bought out by a major cannabis company before she became the Florida\u2019s top agriculture regulator.<\/p>\n She frequently talks about her advocacy for cannabis policy reform on social media, and she has\u00a0investments<\/a>\u00a0in a marijuana company.<\/p>\n Regulators in her office have\u00a0criticized Oregon hemp businesses over hemp products<\/a>\u00a0that they say contain rocks and sticks and have failed to meet regulatory guidelines on allowable THC content. Instead, consumers should buy local products made in Florida, Fried\u2019s department said.<\/p>\n In 2018,\u00a0the national bank Wells Fargo fired Fried as a client<\/a>\u00a0because her campaign has received donations from \u201clobbyists from the medical marijuana industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the text<\/a> of the lawsuit against DOJ and ATF on medical marijuana and gun rights below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Another US Senate Candidate Smokes Marijuana In Campaign Ad, Calling For Reform On 4\/20<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Florida Official Sues Biden Administration Over Gun Rights For Medical Marijuana Patients On 4\/20<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s agriculture commissioner on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, arguing that the federal government is unconstitutionally depriving medical cannabis patients of their Second Amendment right to purchase and possess firearms. The suit from Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), who is also running for governor,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54388,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54387\/revisions\/54388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Florida Official Sues Biden Administration Over Gun Rights For Medical Marijuana Patients On 4\/20<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"