Medical marijuana use should be no barrier to gun ownership, appeals court rules

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ( WWSB ) - Siding with medical-marijuana patients in a Florida case, an appeals court on Wednesday found that federal restrictions barring pot patients from buying and using guns appears to run afoul of the Second Amendment.

The federal government “failed to meet its burden … to establish that disarming medical marijuana users is consistent with this nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation,” the decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ panel said.

Then-Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and medical-marijuana patients filed the lawsuit in 2022 challenging the prohibitions. While marijuana is illegal under federal law, Florida voters in 2016 passed a constitutional amendment to allow patients to use marijuana for