[Vision2020] Toke or Shoot:Not Both

[Ron Force]

 You have to choose: Guns or pot, but not both
By SCOTT SUNDE, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Updated 10:40 p.m., Thursday, September 29, 2011
Washington allows you to use medical marijuana and buy guns.

But now the feds say you can't do both.

And hunters and gun owners in the West, who also happen to be medical pot users, are not happy about it.

In a letter to firearms dealers across the country early this month, the Bureau of Explosives, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms left little doubt how it feels about selling guns to legal marijuana users.

"...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 use of or addicted to a controlled substance and is prohibited by federal law from possessiong firesams or ammunition," wrote Arthur Herbert, the bureau's assistant director for enforcement programs and services.

If a person indicates on federal forms that he or she is a medical marijuana user, then they can't be sold guns or ammunition, Herbert wrote.

And if the firearms dealer knows that the buyer uses medical marijuana, the dealer can't sell him a gun even if he didn't indicate it on federal forms, the letter says.

Herbert says federal law prohibits people who are unlawful users of or addicted to controlled substances from possessing or buying guns. Federal law declares marijuana a controlled substance and makes no exceptions for states like Washingon, where medical marijuana is legal.

Besides Washington, 15 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana.

One of those is Montana, where legal pot users who are also hunters and gun owners expressed their displeasure to USA Today.

One was Jon Svaren, a Navy veteran and farmer near Hardin, Mont., who uses medical marijuana as he recovers from back surgery.

"To take away my Second Amendment rights is contrary to everything I've ever fought for and contrary to every oath of enlistment I've taken," Svaren told the newspaper.

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