Cancer patients. People living with HIV/AIDS, fibromyalgia, ulcerative colitis, severe arthritis, and Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
These don’t seem like a group of miscreants, do they?
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Well, in the state of Arkansas – they are.
According to the Arkansas Department of Health, you can’t have both a medical marijuana card and legally own a firearm. Why? Because pot is illegal on the federal level.
NWA reports:
Robert Reed, a Navy Veteran who served his country for 16 years, suffers PTSD along medical conditions which medical marijuana would help.
Reed said, “I will not apply for a med license, and risk my livelihood and my safety.”The Arkansas Department of Health said a question they get all the time is whether or not you can own a gun and possess a medical marijuana ID card. Since prescription pot is a Schedule 1 controlled substance, under federal law, you can’t own a gun legally. And federal law supersedes state law.“If they’re a user of marijuana, although legal in Arkansas, it’s still illegal on the federal level,” explained Robert Brech with Arkansas Department of Health. “It’s very clear you cannot be a marijuana user and pass that check.”
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Reed and other veterans who fought for Constitutional rights will not apply for their medical marijuana cards due to putting the freedom they fought for at risk.“You’ve got a law that outlaws the people that defended your right to make a law that puts me in jail,” said Reed.
Sadly, rather than stepping up and advocating for Arkansans like Reed, Brech takes the ‘government stance’ and simply passes the buck.
“It’s really a problem at the federal level, not the state level,” Brech clarified.
Yeah, we get it. And in the meantime, citizens like Reed are the ones caught in the lurch.
“How can I have health and freedom by giving up a right? I can’t,” Reed concluded.
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