Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Says No to Guns for Medical Marijuana Users

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that federal laws that prohibit drug users from purchasing firearms still apply to medical marijuana users, even in states where marijuana use has been decriminalized for medical or recreational use.

The majority of states have decriminalized marijuana use to some degree. However, at the federal level, the drug is still regulated as a schedule one narcotic, the same as heroin. Because of this, the court upheld the lower court’s ruling that allowed a gun dealer to deny a gun sale to a person with a medical marijuana card.

According to the ATF’s Form 4473 — the background check form — a person who is an unlawful user of marijuana or marijuana addict is not legally allowed to purchase guns from an FFL.

In 2011 an Arizona gun store declined to sell a woman a firearm, even though she had not disclosed her planned marijuana use. The store owner had outside knowledge that the woman, Rowan Wilson, had obtained a medical marijuana card and refused to sell her a gun.

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