Guns For Everyone Except You

Filed Under: Stoned, But Still an American

---

The federal government wants it both ways. Freedom for everyone except you. Guns for the drunk, the angry, the opioid-addled, the paranoid militia freaks down the road. But if you are a medical cannabis patient, following your state’s law to the letter, suddenly, you are too dangerous to trust with a firearm.

That double standard has been rotting in federal law since 1968, when Congress wrote that any “unlawful user” of a controlled substance could not possess a gun. Never mind that the plant you use is legal where you live. Never mind that your doctor prescribed it. Never mind that you are a law-abiding citizen. The second you fill out that ATF Form 4473 at the gun counter, the federal government forces you to make a choice. Lie and risk a felony. Tell the truth and lose your Second Amendment rights. Guns for everyone. Except you.

Last week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said enough. In a ruling that sent shockwaves through the legal and cannabis worlds, the court held that Florida medical cannabis patients have a plausible claim that their Second Amendment rights are being violated. The case, known as Cooper v. Attorney General of the United States, has been grinding through the courts since 2022, when then–Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried filed suit alongside three patients. Their claim was simple. Following your doctor’s advice and your state’s laws should not cost you a constitutional right.

The judges agreed, at least enough to keep the case alive. Their words cut to the heart of the matter:

“has failed, at the motion to dismiss stage, to establish that disarming Appellants is consistent with this Nation’s history and tradition.”

Translation. The government has not shown that people like you and me, who follow state law and use cannabis responsibly, can be stripped of their rights without proof of danger or criminality.

This is not a full victory. The court did not strike down the federal law. It did not rewrite ATF policy. What it did was force the government to prove its case instead of hiding behind decades of lazy prohibition. The lawsuit now goes back to the lower court, where the facts will be tested. But the message is clear. The Second Amendment does not vanish because you take your medicine.

Nikki Fried, who helped launch the lawsuit, called the decision:

“a huge win for freedom. No medical cannabis patient should have to choose between their rights to their medicine or their right to bear arms.”

The hypocrisy of the law has been obvious for decades. Alcohol kills tens of thousands every year. Opioids kill more. Prescription drugs destroy lives every day. Yet none of those users are automatically stripped of their right to own a firearm. The law only singles out cannabis. The reasoning has never made sense, and the courts are finally starting to admit it.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said as much in 2024 in a case out of Texas. A man named Patrick Daniels was charged under the same federal law for possessing a firearm while being a cannabis user. The court ruled that the government could not show any historical tradition of disarming people just because they used marijuana. That decision sent a signal to every court in the country that the old logic was crumbling. The Eleventh Circuit just added its voice to that chorus.

For patients, this ruling is more than legal theory. It is validation. For years, they have been told they are second-class citizens. That their medicine makes them criminals. That their safety and their families’ safety are less important than some outdated reading of a law written before most of us were born. This ruling cracks that wall. It is not down yet, but the cracks are spreading.

There is still risk. The ATF has not changed its position. That Form 4473 is still waiting at every licensed dealer. Question 21f is still there, asking if you are an unlawful user of marijuana. And the agency still considers every cannabis user in every state to be unlawful. That is the trap. Answer honestly, and you cannot buy a gun. Lie, and you risk a felony with up to ten years in federal prison. That is the reality on the ground today, even after the court’s decision.

The Department of Justice could also fight back. It could ask the full Eleventh Circuit to review the case. It could run to the Supreme Court and beg for a reversal. With similar cases already moving through the system in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states, there is a real chance the high court will take this up. When it does, we will see if the justices are willing to admit what every honest person already knows. Cannabis is not a disqualifier for citizenship.

The historical argument that courts are using is powerful. The Supreme Court’s Bruen decision in 2022 set the standard. Any law restricting gun rights has to be consistent with the history and tradition of firearm regulation in this country. And there is no history of banning cannabis users from owning guns. Quite the opposite. Hemp and cannabis were grown in the colonies. The Founders knew the plant, used the plant, and never wrote a single law to disarm people for it.

---

_{^{advertisement}}

_{^{advertisement}}

---

Paul Armentano of NORML summed up the larger point:

“Neither past nor current cannabis use should automatically preclude someone from legal protections explicitly provided by the US Constitution.”

This matters because the Second Amendment, like every right, is only as strong as the courts allow it to be. For decades, the federal government has relied on fear and stigma to enforce a law that made no sense. Now the courts are starting to demand more than fear. They want evidence. They want history. And the government has neither.

For cannabis culture, this is bigger than guns. It is about dignity. About not being treated like a criminal for using a plant that your state says is medicine. It is about not having to choose between your health and your rights. It is about standing on equal footing with every other citizen. That is what makes this moment historic.

What happens next will be messy. Lower courts in the Eleventh Circuit, which covers Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, are now bound by this decision. That means patients there will have a stronger argument if they are prosecuted or denied a firearm. But in the rest of the country, the law is still the law. Patients are still at risk. And that risk will not disappear until the federal government changes the statute or the Supreme Court strikes it down.

For now, the advice is the same. Know the law. Know the risk. If you are a medical cannabis patient and you want to own a firearm, talk to a lawyer before you do anything. The ruling is progress, but it is not protection. Not yet.

This fight will not stop here. Congress could fix the law tomorrow if it wanted to. It will not. The politics are too ugly, the donations too sweet, the fear too useful. So it will be the courts that decide, case by case, state by state, until the hypocrisy collapses under its own weight.

And when it does, when patients finally stand on equal footing, remember this moment. Remember that it was not handed down by a benevolent government. It was pried loose by people who refused to be treated as criminals. People who were willing to stand up and fight.

The federal government wants it both ways. It always has. But the walls are cracking. The old lies are crumbling. And one day soon, the choice between your medicine and your rights will not be a choice at all. It will be your life, your health, your rights, all recognized for what they are. Yours.

Until then, the fight goes on.

---

_{^{©2025 Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This content is the exclusive property of Pot Culture Magazine and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews.}}

---