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Medical marijuana could present a tough choice for gun owners

While thousands of Oklahomans desperately hope to see medical marijuana become legal in the state, many of them may be presented with a tough decision.

Under federal law - which continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic - anyone possessing or using marijuana can face a stiff prison sentence for possession of a firearm.

That's something that organizers of the recent petition drive to get marijuana on the ballot in Oklahoma apparently hadn't reckoned with.

KRMG asked Joe Dorman with Oklahomans for Health whether medical marijuana would present a problem for people who, for example, wanted to have a license to carry a handgun under the state's Self Defense Act (SDA).

"With the Self Defense Act, there would be no issue with this as far as state regulations," Dorman said.

But when KRMG reached out to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which handles SDA licenses, we got a very different answer.

In an emailed response to our inquiry, OSBI legal counsel Sunne Day wrote:

Oklahoma law prohibits OSBI from issuing a handgun license to anyone who is "[i]neligible to possess a pistol due to any provisions of law of this state or the United States Code..."  (See 21 O.S. Section 1290.10(9)).  Federal law, as pointed out in your follow-up email, prohibits any person who is an "unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance..." from shipping, transporting, receiving or possessing firearms.  The Controlled Substances Act lists marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance.  Moreover, federal law does not provide an exception for medical marijuana use, even if an exception is provided by state law.  Therefore, a person would be prohibited under state and federal law from having a handgun license if they are an unlawful user of a controlled substance, which includes medical marijuana.

The issue has received wide attention in the neighboring state of Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal (under state law) as well as medical marijuana.

A recent article on potguide.com notes that the federal law "forces patients to choose between the medicine they need and the protection (or perhaps fresh deer meat) they are constitutionally-promised."

There's a move on in Colorado to protect medical marijuana patients from losing their 2nd Amendment rights.

If it survived the inevitable battles in court, it would present a legal precedent for similar legislation in Oklahoma.

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