Medical Marijuana Patients and Guns
Earlier this year medical marijuana patients got some good news. When scanned medical ID cards were used to identify current participants, it also prevented patients from buying guns. The data would show up on background checks and blocked patients from owning weapons or even purchasing the ammunition to load it. Well Pennsylvania has decided that it will no longer provide those names and patients will no longer show up in background checks!
Check out the article below from Sam Wood:
Pa. regulators reverse course; Medical marijuana won’t stop patient gun purchases
The state Department of Health made the announcement late Friday afternoon in the wake of an Inquirer and Daily News story that called attention to the fact that marijuana patients would not be able to buy firearms.
The department also called for the federal government to reclassify marijuana, essentially demanding that it legalize cannabis on a national level. Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration considers all forms of the plant to be “without any accepted medical use,” “highly addictive,” and on par with LSD and heroin. Last week U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed Obama-era policies and said federal prosecutors had the discretion to crack down on participants in state-legal marijuana programs.
“Pennsylvania, and the other 28 states where medical marijuana is legal, need the federal government to recognize what voters and bipartisan legislatures across the nation have overwhelmingly called for, and that is that medical marijuana must be rescheduled as a Schedule II medication,” the Health Department statement read. Other Schedule II drugs include oxycodone and fentanyl.
Read the rest of the article here.