Gun ban for marijuana users gets high court review

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WARREN, Pa. -- As the top county law enforcement official for more than a decade, former district attorney Rob Greene regularly prosecuted crimes involving drugs even as he often consumed cannabis on the side.
The U.S. Army veteran, avid hunter, and father of three is one of 440,000 Pennsylvanians with a state-authorized medical marijuana card under a program lawmakers enacted in 2016.
Greene, who stepped down as DA earlier this year, says the cannabis he uses "once or twice every week or two" has significantly improved his quality of life but also came with what he calls an unconstitutional trade-off.
"As of right now, I have zero firearms," Greene told ABC News in an interview. "I could serve 10 years in prison for having firearms because I am, according to the feds, an illegal user of marijuana. I mean, it's (expletive)."
For nearly 60 years, the possession of a gun by anyone who unlawfully uses or is addicted to controlled substances -- including marijuana -- has been banned under federal law, even when they are not intoxicated.
Public health groups call it common sense; the Trump administration calls it a cornerstone of public safety. Greene argues it should only apply to people who are in the act of using drugs.
Next week, the Supreme Court will consider whether the gun ban for drug users is unconstitutionally broad in a high-stakes case at the center of growing debate over whether marijuana deserves a carve-out in the law.
"Are there certain drugs that are so dangerous and addictive that it's not safe for you to have a firearm? Sure," said Greene. "Marijuana is not one of them." Although Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from cracking down on state medical marijuana programs and President Trump recently signed an executive order loosening restrictions on the drug, cannabis remains prohibited under federal law.
That means 6 million registered medical marijuana patients across 40 states must surrender their Second Amendment right to own a gun as long as they are using.
"Even though in the state of Pennsylvania they made medical marijuana legal, the federal law still mandates that we cannot sell you a firearm," said Tim Parker, owner of Presque Isle Gun Shop in Erie, Penn.
Parker said he frequently turns away customers who attest on a federal gun purchase form that they have used illegal drugs or mention their medical marijuana card when seeking to purchase a weapon.
"We have a sign on the outside of the door -- we do not like people that smell like marijuana coming into our shop. We will not sell you anything," he said.
Since 1998, the FBI says countless drug users have been turned away by gun dealers because of the federal Firearm Transaction Form 4473. In addition, more than 240,000 potential gun buyers have been flagged for drug-related convictions by the background check system, according to federal data.
"Those are the kind of people that shouldn't be carrying a gun because it's all split second things, and a gun doesn't think for itself. Guns don't kill people. People kill people," said Parker.
State and local law enforcement groups have urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law, warning of the potential dangers of combining drugs and guns.
"We don't want someone who's under the influence of alcohol or methamphetamine or cocaine or marijuana to be handling a firearm. Obviously, there's some safety issues there," said Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah.
Of the 700 firearms confiscated in crimes in Erie since 2023, Lorah estimated 70% were probably involved in the drug trade.
While Lorah told ABC that he does not consider medical marijuana a top threat and understands the medical benefits of the drug, he says creating an exception for cannabis in the drug ban should be up to federal lawmakers.
"Certainly the Second Amendment brings about a lot of strong emotion," he said. "If we could get the federal government and the states to come to a conclusion on the issue of marijuana and guns that would probably make law enforcement's life much easier."
The Justice Department says it prosecutes roughly 300 federal cases a year in which a violation of the drug user gun ban is a leading charge.
The recent prosecution of Hunter Biden, a self-confessed recovering crack cocaine addict, is considered the most high profile example. Biden was charged with lying on the federal gun transaction form and obtaining a firearm.
So was Ali Hemani of Texas whose case is now before the Supreme Court. The government says he admitted to using marijuana "every other day" while keeping a Glock 9mm pistol in his home.
A federal court tossed out the indictment of Hemani saying the ban is unconstitutional as applied since he was not intoxicated with a gun.
"The truth is, there has to be a showing of some kind of actual dangerousness," argued attorney Joseph Bondy, chairman of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law (NORML).
"You could, for example, have a prescription to consume Oxycontin or some kind of anti-psychotic medication, right? And you would still be able to possess a firearm whereas a cannabis user could not," he said.
The lower court Hemani decision spawned a rare alliance bringing together the Trump administration, gun safety advocates, and anti-drug groups who are now appealing to the Supreme Court to hold the line.
The administration argues that a ban on guns for people who use illegal drugs is both constitutional and rooted in the nation's history and tradition.
"Back to the days of the founding, we had laws about intoxication and severe intoxication, even surrounding things like alcohol," said Jordan Davidson, government affairs director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
The group has warned that marijuana use has been linked to perpetrators of some of the country's deadliest mass shootings.
"It's not to say that everyone who smokes marijuana is going to have cannabis induced psychosis, or even the vast majority," said Davidson, "but we need a bright line rule here to prevent against the worst possible scenarios that could occur."
Greene agrees that certain Americans who use drugs should be disarmed, but says the dangers of marijuana are overblown.
"Cannabis has helped me in a number of ways. I mean, it helps me immensely. It's helped out a lot of other people and it has hurt me in zero ways," he said.
Oral arguments in the case U.S. v. Hemani will be heard by the Supreme Court on March 2. A decision on the constitutionality of the gun ban for marijuana users is expected later this spring.