Cannabis Use and Gun Ownership

The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in a case challenging the constitutionality of a federal law that criminalizes gun ownership by cannabis users. This means that the Court will review a District Court ruling stripping an American citizen of the right to bear arms.

It’s estimated that one in three Americans owns a firearm, while 17% of adults in the U.S. have used cannabis in the past month. 

The law in question actually criminalizes gun ownership by individuals who are “unlawful users of, or addicted to any controlled substances.” In this case, a search of the defendant Ali Daniel Hemani’s home turned up a small amount of both cannabis and cocaine in addition to a Glock 9, which he otherwise legally possessed. “Unlawful” in this case means under federal law, and so the ban applies regardless of the cannabis policy of the state in which the violation occurred.

Hemani’s attorneys made a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that the ban violated his Second Amendment rights. That motion was granted by the District Court and upheld on appeal by the 5th circuit, which cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in NYS Rifle and Pistol Assn vs. Bruen. That case established the current test, holding that any limitation on Second Amendment rights must have a historical analogue, though it is unclear just how far back in history that parallel need has occurred. 

The government has argued in this case that the ban is analogous to laws limiting the rights of “drunkards” to obtain guns, though that didn’t occur until Reconstruction. At the time of the nation’s founding, when the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no such restrictions.  The government also argues that drug users can regain their rights once they stop using, but there is no indication of what “stop using” means. For how long? Determined by who? And also, if a person is convicted of possessing an otherwise legal gun while “being a drug user”, that’s a felony which in itself can terminate a person's right to bear arms.

There is a big difference between refusing to sell a weapon to someone who is visibly intoxicated — which would seem a reasonable and temporary curtailment of their constitutional right to own a weapon — and stripping someone of a constitutional right for some undetermined period, and perhaps forever, for their otherwise unrelated possession or use of cannabis. 

Regardless of your position on this court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment in Bruen, if you believe, as we do here at MPP, that American adults who own guns have the right to use cannabis, it certainly follows that cannabis users should have the same right to own guns as anyone else.

Adam J. Smith
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project