From the Land of Lincoln (and Obama!) comes the latest variation of stupid policy as Illinois grapples with implementing medical marijuana laws. As the Chicago Tribune reports:
Patients who want to qualify for medical marijuana in Illinois would have to be fingerprinted for a background check and pay $150 a year — and give up their right to own a gun, state officials proposed Tuesday.
The plan outlines how adults who have any of 41 specified medical conditions, such as cancer, AIDS or complex regional pain syndrome, may apply to get a patient registry identification card to purchase medical pot.
The proposed rules are the first in a series of parameters expected to be outlined over the course of the year to govern how medical marijuana can be legally grown, sold and purchased. The Illinois Department of Public Health will take public comment on this set of rules until Feb. 7 and then submit them to a legislative panel for approval by the end of April….
Illinois is the 20th state to allow medical marijuana. The proposed rules may be seen at mcpp.illinois.gov.
In 2011, Reason’s Brian Doherty reported on how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives was applying a federal full-nelson on states that allow medical marijuana:
Merely having a state medical marijuana card, BATFE insists, means that you fall afoul of Sect. 922(g) of the federal criminal code (from the 1968 federal Gun Control Act), which says that anyone “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” is basically barred from possessing or receiving guns or ammo (with the bogus assertion that such possession implicates interstate commerce, which courts will pretty much always claim it does).
Your Pot or Your Guns? Illinois Says It’s One or the Other!
Article by Nick Gillespie for Reason.com