This report just in from NORML Legal Committee member Lee Berger, a criminal defense attorney here in Oregon:

Washington County (Hillsboro; just west of Portland) Oregon Judge Steven L. Price ordered Sheriff Rob Gordon to return to three Oregon Medical Marijuana patients their concealed handgun licenses. Sheriff Gordon had denied one patient’s application, one patient’s renewal, and had revoked one patient’s license based on the argument that federal law prohibiting the possession of a firearm by a controlled substances user preempted state law.  Judge Price ruled it did not, as did Washington County Judge Marco Hernandez before him.

I argued the same issue (with basically the same letter from the sheriff and the same argument from county counsel) before Jackson County (Medford, Southern Oregon) Presiding Judge Shively on Friday morning and am hopeful for a similar result.

I’ve long argued about the effect the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Parmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs has on our Constitutional rights, and the 2nd Amendment is no less a victim than the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, and 15th.

My contention is that since most mandatory minimum sentences double when there are firearms present, even if the firearms are legally possessed, doesn’t this in essence serve to deprive cannabis consumers of our 2nd Amendment rights?  People think of guns and drugs and automatically assume the person must be some cold-blooded drug dealer when many are just cannabis gardeners who can’t call the cops when scary kids with weapons break in to steal very profitable crops.

But these cases take the cake.  I’ve talked with Lee about these cases, where sheriffs in Oregon’s more conservative counties will disarm medical marijuana patients who are following state laws with respect to marijuana and the handgun.  The idea that the patients are really just dope dealers is a prejudice found often in law enforcement, which is the craziest idea when those patients have filled out a form with the state and registered their address for growing into an electronic database that is instantly accessible by law enforcement to verify legality.  That’s far more registration than most law-abiding gun owners are subject to.

Tags: 2nd Amendment, Lee Berger, Oregon

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 7:31 pm and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.