The Second Amendment Foundation has sued the US Government, Attorney General Merrick Garland and two other top federal officials in a challenge of longstanding federal laws and regulations prohibiting gun possession or ownership by medical marijuana users.
SAF is joined by Warren County, Pa. District Attorney Robert Greene, who has served in that office since 2013 and currently possesses a medical marijuana ID card under Pennsylvania law. They are represented by attorneys Adam Kraut, who serves as SAF executive director, and Joshua Prince of Bechtelsville, Pa.
In addition to Garland and the federal government, the lawsuit also names FBI Director Christopher Wray and Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as defendants.
The 28-page complaint was filed in US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The lawsuit challenges restrictions contained in 18 USC §§ 922(g)(3), (d)(3), which prohibit firearms purchases and possession by persons who use marijuana or other controlled substances. The case is known as Greene v. Garland.
In a prepared statement announcing the lawsuit, SAF’s Kraut explained, “Medicinal marijuana has been adopted by 38 states despite federal inaction on the issue. With the increasing acceptance of medical cannabis, millions of Americans are forced to choose between the exercise of their Second Amendment rights or treating their symptoms with a substance that disenfranchises them from their constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms. Such a choice is incompatible with the constitution and finds no basis in this country’s history and tradition. We look forward to vindicating the rights of medical marijuana users.”
In a report published last Nov. 29, the New York Times noted, “But even as a growing number of states have legalized marijuana, either for recreational or medical use, participating in a state’s medical marijuana system remains a barrier to gun ownership.”
The newspaper added, “The issue is shaping up to be one of the next legal frontiers in the national debate over gun policy, as courts around the country are asked to determine whether the longstanding federal restriction on marijuana users conflicts with Second Amendment gun rights.”
It is a case with far-reaching implications, not the least of which may become a moral and political dilemma for the Far Left, which has traditionally supported legalizing marijuana while supporting restrictions on gun ownership, which the Second Amendment and most state constitutions protect.
“The use of medical marijuana should not translate to an automatic surrender of one’s Second Amendment rights,” added SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “The current restrictions unquestionably and arbitrarily infringe on the right to keep and bear arms, and the restriction lacks any director or analogous historical support, as required by the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen ruling.”
The Bruen ruling, which established new guidelines for judging Second Amendment laws and cases on whether current laws are analogous to laws and regulations existing at the time of the Founding and ratification of the Constitution, might play an essential role in the outcome of this case.
According to the complaint, there is historical documentation that George Washington grew hemp, as did Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
“Washington’s diaries indicated he grew hemp at Mount Vernon for about 30 years and that he may have had a particular interest in the medicinal use of Cannabis,” the lawsuit states in a section headlined “A Brief History of Cannabis in the United States.”
“Prior to the start of the Revolutionary War,” the complaint notes, “medical uses for cannabis appeared in The New England Dispensatory, published in 1764…Washington’s diaries indicated he grew hemp at Mount Vernon for about 30 years and that he may have had a particular interest in the medicinal use of Cannabis.” Sources for both assertions are contained in the complaint.
Also, historically, according to the lawsuit, in 1850, cannabis was added to The US Pharmacopoeia, where it remained until 1941…Ten years later, in 1860, the Ohio State Medical Society met and summarized medical uses of cannabis, which included treatments for pain, inflammation, and cough.
“The 1868 version of US Dispensatory included pages of medical uses for tinctures of cannabis, including improved appetite, sexual interest, mental disorders, gout, cholera, hydrophobia, and insomnia,” the lawsuit adds, and by the turn of the 20th century, “marijuana infused medical products were more widely available.”
Every assertion is documented.
SAF and Greene ask the court to “Declare that 18 USC §§ 922(g)(3), (d)(3), and all related laws, regulations, policies, and procedures, including, but not limited to, 27 CFR §§ 478.32(a)(3), (d)(3), violate Plaintiff Greene’s and SAF’s similarly situated members’ right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
Further, they ask the court to “Preliminarily, and thereafter permanently, enjoin Defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and all persons in active concert or participation with them from enforcing against Plaintiff Greene and SAF’s similarly situated members 18 USC §§ 922(g)(3), (d)(3), and all related laws, regulations, policies, and procedures, including, but not limited to, 27 CFR §§ 478.32(a)(3), (d)(3), that would impede or criminalize Plaintiff Greene’s and SAF’s similarly situated members’ exercise of their right to keep and bear arms.”
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
