OREGON HIGH COURT TO DECIDE CONCEALED HANDGUN/MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUE

The justices will decide whether local medical marijuana patient
should have been denied a concealed handgun permit by Jackson County's sheriff

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters faces a showdown at the Oregon
Supreme Court on March 3 with a local medical marijuana patient who
was denied a concealed handgun permit.

The patient, Cynthia Willis, has allies in her fight for the permit,
including Attorney General John Kroger and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Oregon.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters notes the U.S. Gun Control Act of
1968 specifically forbids anyone who uses or is addicted to a control
substance from having a firearm. Cynthia Willis' allies in her effort
to get a concealed weapons permit from Jackson County include Oregon
Attorney General John Kroger and the ACLU.

But the county's attorney says the sheriff has federal law on his side.

The state Supreme Court will hear Willis' case, which has been
combined with a similar case in Washington County, at the Willamette
University College of Law in Salem at 10:30 a.m., March 3.

Winters denied Willis' gun permit in 2008, arguing that granting the
permit would violate federal laws prohibiting drug users from legally
possessing guns.

Willis so far has won every legal battle against Winters, with the
Jackson County Circuit Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals siding
with her last year.

Willis volunteers with Patient Services, a nonprofit group that helps
people obtain medical marijuana cards.

The decision by the state Supreme Court to hear the case is
significant since the court takes only about 8 percent of cases
appealed from the lower court.

Leland Berger, Willis' attorney who has been a legal advocate for
medical marijuana patients, said the sheriff has been attempting to
discriminate against those patients by not issuing the permits.

But in a brief filed with the Supreme Court, Ryan Kirchoff, assistant
county counsel, argued that Winters denied the application for the
permit because marijuana use violates federal law.

The U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 specifically forbids anyone who uses
or is addicted to a controlled substance from having a firearm.
Willis admitted to using medical marijuana when she filed her
application with the sheriff for a concealed weapons permit. Kirchoff
argues in the brief that the Oregon Court of Appeals ruling would
force the sheriff to issue a concealed weapons permit to a person who
admits to using methamphetamine.

He stated that when there is a conflict between federal and state
laws, federal law should prevail.

Upholding an earlier ruling by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge
Mark Schiveley, the appeals court in June concluded the sheriff would
not violate the federal Gun Control Act by issuing a handgun permit
to Willis based on Oregon's concealed handgun licensing laws. The
federal act gives states the authority to set their own rules for gun
ownership, the court determined.

The Court of Appeals reasoned that the concealed weapons permit by
itself, doesn't authorize a person, even one who uses a controlled
substance, to actually possess a handgun.

The court noted that Oregon's permit law provides a license to
conceal a weapon, an action that would be illegal without the permit.

Likewise, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act allows someone to do
something that would otherwise be illegal in Oregon, the court found.

A brief filed with the Supreme Court by Attorney General Kroger
stated, "There is no basis to believe that possession of a concealed
handgun license will result in a violation of federal firearms laws."

The ACLU argues that 39 states have their own laws regulating the
permitting of firearms.

According to the ACLU reading of Oregon Revised Statute 166.29, the
sheriff is compelled to issue the concealed handgun license to Willis
because she complied with all the requirements of the statute.

"The sheriff wants this court's authorization for him to go beyond
the statutory requirements and make his own determination as to
whether the person is qualified under federal law to own a handgun,"
the ACLU wrote.

Neither Willis nor Winters returned phone calls requesting comment on the case.