NO GUNS FOR POT USERS

Sales Illegal to Medical Marijuana Users

Federal firearms regulators are telling gun shops it's illegal for
someone who uses marijuana to possess or buy guns or ammunition,
regardless of whether states have passed laws allowing patients to
use the drug for medicinal purposes.

In an open letter to all federal firearms licensees posted last week,
Arthur Herbert, the assistant director of enforcement programs and
services for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,
said his office has received "a number of inquiries" about whether
medical marijuana patients can own or buy guns and ammunition in
medical marijuana states.

Federal law says marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug similar
to heroin, despite voter-approved laws legalizing the drug for
medical use in 16 states, including California. The federal
government doesn't recognize marijuana as a medicine, Herbert says.

"Therefore, anyone 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 user of or
addicted to a controlled substance and is prohibited by federal law
from possessing firearms or ammunition," Herbert writes.

Gun dealers who have "reasonable cause to believe" someone is using
pot or if they see someone check "yes" on a federal firearms form
that asks whether someone is using illegal drugs, should not sell
them guns or ammunition regardless of whether the customer says the
drug is for medicinal purposes, Herbert said.

At least one Redding marijuana collective manager protests the policy.

Niels Hylen, the manager of Northern Patients Group Inc., says his
office on Rhyolite Drive has been robbed at gunpoint twice in recent
weeks, and his clerks should be able to own a gun so they can defend
themselves.

"That's definitely a big concern," Hylen said.

Hylen notes it's perfectly legal for the liquor store owner across
the street to buy and own a gun for protection.

Patrick Jones, the Redding city councilman who owns Jones' Fort gun
shop in Redding, said Herbert's letter only confirms the law gun
dealers have been following for years.

But he says it's impossible for him to know whether marijuana users
simply didn't check the drug-use box. A drug user who does not check
the box, he said, is committing federal perjury.

The maximum penalty for someone convicted of that felony is five
years in prison.

But Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in
Sacramento, said someone who doesn't disclose their drug use on the
form could be charged with "knowingly providing false information to
buy firearms from a licensed firearm dealer," a felony punishable by
up to 10 years in prison.

Jones said that since voters passed Proposition 215, a ballot
initiative that legalized medical marijuana in 1996, he's had to
block the sale of one gun transaction because the buyer was a medical
marijuana patient.

"If we believe you are a 215 user, that sale can't go forward," Jones
said. "If people don't like that, they need to take that up with ATF."