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1. Nevada medical marijuana patient sues US government over denial of 2nd Amendment rights
2. RAND Corp officially pulls the study on marijuana dispensaries and crime
3. San Diego dispensary closures affecting acupuncture, massage, and other wholistic healers
4. Czech Republic introduces medical marijuana proposal
5. Vicente Fox calls for American legalization of drugs

Daily Toker Tunes

Roots Monday: Brought to you by “Radical” Russ

• Sleep from The Chicharones with Peg Leg

Cannabis Community

• CurrenTV: Master Debaters – Marijuana vs. Crystal Meth

Radical Rant

• 5 Favorite Prohibitionist Lies About Marijuana Debunked

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1. KGW News covers Russ Belville in studio on the Gallup poll results for legalization
2. Lawrence O’Donnell slams the hypocrisy of prohibition
3. West Hollywood dispensary busted is linked to B2K’s Lil Fizz

Daily Toker Tunes

Groovin’ Thursday: Brought to you by John Doe Radio.com

• Everlast – “I Get By”

Southern California Scene with Hollywood Hemptress Tere Joyce

• Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network on the California US Attorneys crackdown on medical marijuana

Your Second Amendment rights do not fully apply in the shaded states

Of the sixteen states that currently recognize our Ninth and Tenth Amendment rights to medical use of cannabis*, perhaps none is more associated with love of the Second Amendment’s Right to Bear Arms than Montana (maybe Michigan).  So it is no surprise that the people of Montana are reacting most strongly to the recent memo by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives explaining how registered medical marijuana patients dutifully obeying state law do not have a right to purchase or own weapons and ammunition.

According to the Great Falls Tribune, both of Montana’s senators and its representative have come out against the BATFE memo:

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and the memo’s author urging them to “immediately reconsider this misguided effort.”

“These regulatory changes infringe upon the privacy and Second Amendment rights of Montanans while placing an unreasonable burden upon the small business owners who sell firearms and ammunition,” Tester wrote.

“It is unacceptable that law-abiding citizens would be stripped of their Second Amendment rights simply because they hold a state-issued card authorizing the possession and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes,” Tester added.

Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg, through his spokesman Jed Link, criticized the policy and the Obama administration.

“Between the ATF clamping down on gun rights and two new anti-gun Supreme Court justices, Montanans’ Second Amendment rights are once again under fire from Washington,” Link said.

Sen. Max Baucus said he will continue to defend individual gun rights.

“I’m concerned to hear ATF may be impeding the rights of law-abiding folks,” Baucus said. “Individual gun rights must be protected, and I’ll never stop fighting to make sure they stay intact.”

The Belgrade News reports that Montana’s Attorney General, Steve Bullock, has also criticizes the Obama Administration’s move to disarm lawful medical marijuana patients:

The ATF’s edict that marijuana users may not own or possess firearms or ammunition “implicates serious legal issues under the Second Amendment, and the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fifth Amendment,” Bullock said. It also flies in the face of the state constitution, which protects the right to hunt.

Bullock said some medical marijuana cardholders may not use the drug all of the time, yet the firearm restriction would apply to them for as long as the card was valid. Also, marijuana patients must have the written authorization of a physician to obtain a card, a fact the ATF ignored.

“The ATF letter does not take this into account, even though the controlling federal regulation recognizes that a person who uses a controlled substance in a manner prescribed by a physician is not disqualified from possessing or buying ammunition or guns” under federal law, he said.

The prohibitionists seriously miscalculated when they went after the guns of medical marijuana patients.  I’m hearing from people who aren’t particularly fond of marijuana, period, but find this move by the federal government deeply disturbing.  I think the feds anticipated that the public would applaud keeping guns away from “druggies”, failing to realize that many people don’t consider marijuana a serious drug problem compared to the meth, crack, or heroin plaguing their neighborhood and that a majority support the medical use of marijuana.  The silver lining is that the blowback from this federal overreach is bringing some people off the fence into supporting our side.

*Yeah, I know, the Supreme Court doesn’t see it that way, but if you ask me, the Ninth Amendment applies because it says just because a right isn’t enumerated in the Constitution doesn’t mean it isn’t a right, and I can’t believe a nation full of hemp farmers would have ever conceived of a need to enumerate the right to plant and sow crops.  The Tenth applies because rights not bestowed to the federal government by the Constitution – like the governing of medical practice – are reserved to the States and to the People.

"So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed: 'From my cold, dead hands!'"... or, if I choose to use a non-toxic herb to treat my maladies.

A just-released memo from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is shocking medical marijuana advocates, gun rights advocates, and civil libertarians across America.  According to President Obama’s Department of Justice, if you are one of the 1.5 million estimated medical marijuana patients in one of sixteen states and the District of Columbia, you have no right to bear arms.

Therefore, any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her State has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and is prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition. Such persons should answer ‘yes” to question 11.e. on ATF Form 4473 (August 2008), Firearms Transaction Record, and you may not transfer firearms or ammunition to them. Further, if you are aware that the potential transferee is in possession of a card authorizing the possession and use of marijuana under State law, then you have “reasonable cause to believe” that the person is an unlawful user of a controlled substance. As such, you may not transfer firearms or ammunition to the person, even if the person answered “no” to question 11.e. on ATF Form 4473.

That’s right, your medical marijuana recommendation is a “reasonable cause to believe” that you are a drug addict and therefore ineligible for Second Amendment rights.  What else could be “reasonable cause to believe”… a NORML t-shirt or membership card?  Being a petition gatherer for a medical marijuana initiative?  Carrying around a Cheech & Chong lunchbox?  A picture of you attending a legalization march or hempfest?

Recently two Oregon sheriffs have been pursuing a case to the US Supreme Court to validate their claim that medical marijuana patients can be denied concealed handgun permits based on this very concept that a medical marijuana patient by definition is a drug addict and barred by federal law from owning a gun.  State courts up through the Oregon Supreme Court have held that the sheriffs are outside the bounds of their authority, as they are charged with enforcing state laws, not federal laws.  This would appear to be an attempt by President Obama’s Department of Justice to assert that the Oregon sheriffs are right.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So if you are a medical marijuana patient in most states, you have no legal way to purchase your medicine.  You must grow your own or conduct illegal commerce on a criminal market.  Now you must protect your home grow from invaders or approach black market dealers without the protection of a personal firearm.  Meanwhile, that same ATF that wants to take away guns from sick and disabled patients obeying state laws was coercing Arizona gun dealers to sell automatic weapons to known Mexican drug dealers as part of the vastly under-reported “Operation Fast and Furious”.

The West has always been at the vanguard of medical marijuana reforms.  Westerners are also quite fond of their firearms.  This will surely lead many potential and existing medical marijuana patients to forgo registering and return to criminal status and black market dealers.  All those years growing up in Idaho my Republican acquaintances used to warn that the Democrats were comin’  take away my guns.  I never thought I’d have to admit they were right.

(And since we’re “druggies”, don’t expect any help from the National Rifle Association.  They’ll be as receptive to getting involved as PETA was when the Missouri cops were shooting a man’s pet dog in his home during a raid.  Left or right, liberal or conservative, from the NRA to PETA your rights don’t mean a damn if you’re a cannabis consumer.)

Before…

Click here to view the embedded video.

With apologies to Keith Olbermann…

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Bloomberg Business Week) An Oregon sheriff who lost a state legal battle to deny a concealed handgun license for a medical marijuana patient has decided to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters has argued that issuing the license would violate federal law, specifically the Gun Control Act of 1968.

That argument was rejected by a trial court, the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court in rulings that say state law on concealed handgun permits does not pre-empt federal law, the Mail Tribune reported Wednesday.

So far, the case has cost the county $13,000 in outside legal fees plus the equivalent of $20,000 in time spent by the county’s internal legal team.

Well, that’s OK, because Oregon governments are rolling in dough.  Oh, wait, no, I guess we have a projected $1.7 billion shortfall in the state.  Sure, $13,000 is a drop in that bucket, but when you’re dying of thirst, a drop shouldn’t be wasted.  For instance, that $13,000 is about how much revenue Jackson County brought in from user fees for recreational trails and about how much the county will spend on a hydraulic truck conveyor attachment to help keep the county airport runways usable in the winter.

Also, consider that Jackson County legal professionals were spending $20,000 worth of time trying to take away 2nd Amendment rights from sick and disabled people.  Meanwhile, according to the Jackson County Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, the county had one of the highest crime rates in the state, exceeds the state average in probationers needing supervision, exceeds the 75th percentile in crimes per police officer and cases per prosecutor, and seen a five-year decline in felony conviction rate.  Could that time be better spent than on losing the same court case three times?

I’ve reached out to the National Rifle Association on this one.  They always seem to get upset whenever the federal government wants to take someone’s guns.  Here’s a perfect mix of 2nd Amendment and 10th Amendment that ought to make Charlton Heston* rise from the dead to knock some sense into the sheriff.  Who wants to bet that since marijuana is involved, they won’t touch the issue with a ten foot musket?

*Do NOT mess with Zombie Charlton Heston!  ”Double tap” won’t work and you can’t pry the gun from his cold dead hands.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Oregon Supreme Court decides medical marijuana patients still have 2nd Amendment rights to concealed firearms
2. Maine receives its threatening letter from US attorneys over medical marijuana
3. Florida: new product, “Lazy Cakes”, chock full of melatonin and sold as an alternative to marijuana
4. Spokane’s MHP cannabis dispensary raided yesterday by Spokane PD and DEA, recount of live reports from yesterday

Daily Toker Tunes

• Live interview with Steve Caprio, aka Ominous Words
• Thoughts Arizen and Ominous Words – “Hotbox the Planet”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Speaker’s Corner

• US Coast Guard Commander (Ret.) Keith King

Southern California Scene with Hollywood Hemptress Tere Joyce

• Steven Allen Greene on the Laughter Foundation, a non-profit bringing health care coverage to stand-up comedians

FINALLY!  A Supreme Court decision this week I can wholeheartedly support!  Huge congratulations goes to NORML Legal Committee attorney Leland Berger who argued the case with assistance from another NLC’er, John Lucy.

(Albany Times-Union) GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that retired bus driver Cynthia Willis can have her medical marijuana and her concealed handgun, too.

The court ruled Thursday that a federal law barring criminals and drug addicts from buying firearms does not excuse sheriffs from issuing concealed weapons permits to people who qualify, including those who hold medical marijuana cards.

Willis says she feels “like a big girl now” because the court found medical marijuana patients should be treated like everyone else.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Ore-court-rules-medical-pot-users-can-have-guns-1386735.php#ixzz1MoyeHdwg

Click here to view the embedded video.

This case at the Oregon Supreme Court could have implications for all medical marijuana patients in all states.  Does the federal government’s ban on firearms licenses for “drug addicts” mean that state-legal medical marijuana patients should be stripped of their guns?

If this decision comes down on the government’s side, thousands of medical marijuana patients, especially in rural areas, will be put in danger.  On this blog we’ve told the stories of Dave Verstoppen and Steve Sarich and other Pacific Northwest medical marijuana growers, many who live in rural areas, who have been attacked by criminals.

Who more needs their Second Amendment rights than someone who – through government tyranny – is a target for home invasion robberies?

(Redding.com) Gun shop manager Patrick Jones says he wants to sell as many firearms as he can.

But Jones won’t do business with known medical cannabis patients, such as Army Spc. Sean Merritt, an honorably discharged and disabled veteran.

That refusal has drawn criticism from Merritt, [Executive Director of NorCal NORML,] and other medical marijuana advocates, who have twice gone to Redding City Council chambers to denounce Jones, who happens to be mayor, for violating patients’ rights.

“There is nothing in state law that says I cannot own or possess a firearm,” Merritt said at a recent council meeting. “And to be told as such is branding me as a severe mental patient or a felon. I am neither.”

NorCal NORML Executive Director Sean Merritt (photo by ANDREAS FUHRMANN)

Jones has said he is merely following the law – in this case, a federal law that forbids gun dealers from selling firearms to anyone who is “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana.”

Would-be gun owners are required to fill out a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) form that poses questions about the buyer’s criminal history, mental health, citizenship and drug use.

Along with marijuana, Question 11e on the ATF form asks about “any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.”

If a buyer marks “yes” to Question 11e, the sale cannot go forward, Jones said.

I have long been pointing out to my conservative gun-owning family and friends back in Idaho that the War on Drugs is just a convenient way to disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens.  Any felony crime involving marijuana and guns – even when it is your lawfully-owned hunting rifle or “can gun” – invokes enhanced mandatory minimum penalties.

But now with legal medical marijuana in fourteen states, even law-abiding citizens are given the choice between their health and their Second Amendment rights.  Often these medical marijuana patients are growing their own, so as not to pay expensive dispensary prices or fund the black market.  These people, like Washington’s Steve Sarich, are the ones who most need their firearms for home protection from criminals who would rob them of their medicine.

(Volokh Conspiracy) The AP reports that Steve Sarich — who “runs CannaCare, an organization that claims 7,000 members in the state,” which among other things “provides patients with marijuana clones or starter plants and delivers about 50 patients a week with usable marijuana” — has been told by the King County Sheriff’s Office that he may not buy a gun.

The federal law underlying the prohibition is 18 U.S.C. § 922, which bars possession of guns by (among others) anyone “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance,” and bars transfers of guns to such people. The sheriff’s office reported that the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System “informed us that possession of a medical drug card is sufficient to establish an inference of current use,” and that therefore the sheriff’s office can’t approve the transfer of a gun to Sarich.

Sarich had been trying to buy guns to replace ones seized by investigators who were investigating a burglary and attempted robbery at Sarich’s home; Sarich had shot one of the robbers. Sarich is also being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office “for potential violations of the state’s medical-marijuana law.” The sheriff’s office “insists he was making a handsome profit selling marijuana and starter plants and charging patients for attending the clinics,” and claims that Sarich has had many more plants than he is allowed to possess under state law. But the ostensible reason for the background check coming up with a no-sale result was the possession of the card, not any past conviction — Sarich has not been convicted of the drug crimes that the sheriff’s department is investigating.

Here in Oregon, we’ve reported on the case of Steven Schwerdt, who was denied his concealed handgun permit by Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon.  He’s the sheriff who also thinks of the medical marijuana laws as “advice” and regularly posts the general locations of the medical marijuana grow sites in his county.

(The Daily News) Sheriffs from Washington and Jackson counties say, though, that they want clarification from the court on whether federal gun laws prohibiting illegal drug users from possessing handguns applies to people who have permits to use marijuana for medical reasons. Marijuana is still classified as a controlled substance under federal law, they said.

Lower courts had twice ordered the two sheriffs to give weapons permits to people who had lost them because they are medical marijuana users, and both appealed those rulings.

Medical marijuana users who meet all other criteria cannot be deprived of the right to a concealed handgun permit, said [NORML Legal Committee Attorney] Leland Berger, who helped write Oregon’s medical marijuana law.

“What this is about is that the sheriffs don’t like the medical marijuana law. Twelve years after it was approved by voters, the sheriffs want to discriminate against patients,” he said.

Steven Schwerdt said he had a concealed handgun permit for six years before the Washington county sheriff’s office revoked it when he became a medical marijuana user.

“I’m no criminal; I’m just a guy who can’t physically run away from dangerous situations,” said Schwerdt, who uses medical marijuana to relieve the symptoms of severe arthritis and gout.