Cannabis and Guns – The American Contradiction

By James Bridges
Herbage Magazine

Wow.

If you don’t see the propaganda machine spinning harder than it has since Reefer Madness, you’re not paying attention.

The Supreme Court just agreed to hear a case that could finally decide whether cannabis users have the right to own firearms. Seriously… A legal plant in half the country still makes you a “prohibited person” in the eyes of federal law right up there with fugitives, felons, and domestic abusers. The obvious overreach due to our country’s uneducated and wrong past decisions is damn near laughable, if it weren’t for the severity of the situation.

Those that have never witnessed the blessings of cannabis will most likely fall for this ignorant and unjust judgment and jump on the bandwagon. Not because you see the data that proves it, but because those that have power over you are telling you so.

The system = Insanity

The Case is Hemani v. United States
At the heart of it all is a Texas man named Ali Danial Hemani.

Federal prosecutors went after him under a law that bans anyone who is “an unlawful user of a controlled substance” from owning or possessing a firearm.
That’s sketchy as cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under federal law.

So even if you’re a medical patient, a state-licensed grower, or a casual smoker living in a fully legal state… you’re technically an “unlawful user.”

Hemani challenged the charge. A lower court sided with him, saying the law violated his Second Amendment rights. Now the Supreme Court has stepped in and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Let’s call it what it is, a federal contradiction.

The U.S. government taxes cannabis businesses, tracks their revenue, and collects income from it. But at the same time, it criminalizes the very people who use or work with it.

Meanwhile, 40+ states have legalized cannabis in some form. Millions of law-abiding citizens, veterans, patients, and entrepreneurs are living under a legal illusion.

You can run a dispensary.
You can pay taxes.
You can follow every rule your state requires.
But if you also own a gun, the Constitution suddenly skips your name.

Here in Oklahoma, cannabis and guns are both part of the culture. That’s not changing anytime soon.

Open your wallet and many of you will find a medical card as well as a hunting license.

This state has one of the largest medical marijuana programs per capita in the nation and one of the most passionate gun-owning populations anywhere. The idea that one cancels out the other is absurd.

Every patient, grower, or advocate in this state should be watching this case closely. Because if SCOTUS rules against cannabis users, it sets the stage for even deeper federal hypocrisy and potentially criminal exposure for thousands of ordinary Oklahomans who’ve never hurt anyone.

The Supreme Court’s been on a tear redefining gun rights lately.

Their 2022 Bruen decision said that any gun restriction must fit within the “text, history, and tradition” of the Second Amendment. That’s the standard Hemani’s lawyers are using.

They argue there’s no historical precedent for disarming sober citizens just because they occasionally use a plant. Guess what, they’re right. There’s no colonial-era rule saying “no muskets if you like a little hemp.” Put your head to that.

If the Court stays consistent with its own logic, this federal ban should crumble.

You want to talk about danger?
Let’s do this with alcohol. I dare you.

Alcohol kills more than 140,000 Americans every year. It fuels violence, wrecks families, and floods prisons. Yet no one’s saying beer drinkers can’t own a gun.

Cannabis? It chills people out.

You’ll never see someone smoking a joint and picking a fight in a bar. But somehow, cannabis users are the ones stripped of their rights?

Hypocrisy becomes obvious as stigma rises once again. The ebb and flow of our desire to be right. The necessity for us to judge as humans. The inability for us to notice when we are being controlled. It’s right in front of us. Minute by minute. Day to day.

However the Court rules, it’s going to change the landscape for millions.

If the ban falls, cannabis users could regain the same Second Amendment rights as anyone else which would be a huge symbolic and legal shift.

If the ban stands, it means the federal government still considers cannabis users “untrustworthy,” no matter what the science, the states, or common sense say.

Either way, the outcome will ripple across every dispensary, every grow, and every patient registry in the country.

The conversation is coming, fast.

If the system can still call you an outlaw for choosing a plant, then maybe it’s not the weed that’s the problem.

Tags
#CannabisRights #GunRights #OklahomaCannabis #HerbageMagazine #MarijuanaLaw #SupremeCourt #FederalContradiction #CannabisCulture #Legalization #SecondAmendment
Excerpt
The Supreme Court will decide whether cannabis users can legally own firearms — a case that could redefine the intersection of personal freedom, gun rights, and cannabis culture in America.