The Supreme Court will decide if marijuana users may be barred from owning guns

On March 2, the justices will hear their second major Second Amendment case of the Supreme Court’s current term. United States v. Hemani asks whether Congress may make it a crime for an “unlawful user” of marijuana to possess a gun.

If you are a lawyer trying to guess how the Court will rule in this case, good luck with that. The Court’s Second Amendment precedents are as unsalvageable as they are confusing. At least in theory, they require judges to ask whether a modern-day gun law is sufficiently similar to gun laws from more than 200 years ago. But the rules appear to shift depending on whether a majority of the justices actually think a particular gun law is a good idea.

That said, there is a sensible way that the Court could resolve the Hemani case without having to wade into this historical morass. Again, the federal law at issue in Hemani bars gun possession by an “unlawful user” of “any controlled substance” such as marijuana. But what does it mean to be an unlawful user of marijuana?

If someone takes a bong hit in college, decides that they don’t like weed, and never gets high again, are they forever barred from owning a gun? What about a person who shares a joint with her cousins every year on Thanksgiving, but otherwise doesn’t smoke? And if this law doesn’t permanently bar one-time marijuana users from having a gun, when does the bar end? If someone takes a single puff at a party in February, do they get their gun rights back in March? In November? And what about people who use marijuana more than occasionally? If someone takes a weed gummy a couple times a month to help them sleep, are they barred from owning a gun? What about someone who hits a vape pen on every other Saturday?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/supreme-court-decide-marijuana-users-114500181.html