The state of Arkansas has created a law to protect the ability of medical marijuana users in the state to obtain a concealed carry handgun license. HB1784 was introduced on March 29, 2023. On April 4th, 2023, the House voted for bill HB1784, 82 to 5, with eight not voting and five not present.
On April 7, 2023, the Senate voted for the bill HB1784, 26 to 3, with two not voting and two not present. HB1724 was signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) into law on April 12, 2023. Here are relevant excerpts. From the Arkansas State Legislature:
(B) The director shall not consider a person’s status as a qualifying patient or designated caregiver under the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016, Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 98, § 2, in determining whether an applicant is eligible to be issued a license to carry a concealed handgun under this subchapter….
(C) An applicant shall not be considered to chronically or 13habitually abuse a controlled substance based solely on the applicant’s 14status as a qualifying patient or designated caregiver under the Arkansas 15Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016, Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 98.
This part of the statute prohibits the Arkansas Department of Health from disclosing the status of a person as a marijuana user in a criminal history check or other background checks which will be used in consideration of the issuance of a concealed carry handgun license.
20-56-308. Firearm rights protections.
(a) The General Assembly finds that under Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 98, § 5(f), a person’s status as a qualifying patient or designated caregiver is confidential.
(b) The Department of Health shall not disclose the identity of a person who has been issued a registry identification card to the Division of the Arkansas State Police for the purpose of facilitating a criminal history record check or any other background check related to the issuance of a license to carry a concealed handgun under § 5-73-301 et seq.
(c) The Director of the Division of Arkansas State Police shall not consider a person’s status as a qualifying patient or designated caregiver under the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment of 2016, Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 98, § 2, in determining whether an applicant or licensee is eligible to be issued a license to carry a concealed handgun under § 5-73-301 et seq.
The Arkansas law took effect on August 1, 2023.
Arkansas is a Constitutional Carry state. No permit is needed to carry a loaded handgun, openly or concealed. The permit is useful to carry in other states which recognize the Arkansas permit.
On the federal level, U.S. District Court Judge Patrick R. Wyrick found the prohibition on Marijuana users from purchasing and owning firearms in federal law to be unconstitutional. The case is in the Western District of Oklahoma in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The United States Attorney has filed an appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A bill, H.R.2772, the GRAM Act, has been filed in Congress to remove marijuana from the list of substances whose use disqualifies a person from being able to legally purchase a firearm or to possess one. The act does not appear to have much support at present.
Such disqualifiers are recent additions to federal law. They do not have historical precedents. In time, I expect they will be found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Read Related: Judge Rules Ban on Gun Possession for Marijuana Users Unconstitutional
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The question about drug use will still be on the form 4473.
the government has to get rid of the reefer madness mentality that pervades this country.
this administration allows millions of illegals bringing fentynal which kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year across the southern border but is against pot smokers buying, owning and carrying firearms?
This probably is a nothingburger unless Arkansas is willing to go toe-to-toe against the feds to protect medical-marijuana gunowners. If Arkansas actively refuses to allow federal law enforcement to physically enter the state, only then can Arkansas medical-marijuana gunowners breathe easy!
Otherwise, the feds are gonna come into the state and start making arrests; they have the tech and the power to find out who all the medical-marijuana gunowners are.
My concern with this change is that if other states honor Arkansas carry-license, those states may rescind the reciprocity. Texas rule is that if another state recognizes our license, we recognize theirs. However some states won’t accept licenses which do not meet or exceed their own standards. If they won’t license a licensed pot user, they are likely to not recognize any licenses from a state which will. Funny part of this is that when talking to a pro-pot, anti-gun group – I suggested they push to legalize pot in as many states as possible, since users are prohibited people… Read more »
Music, I mentioned this previously, all of my wife’s California family who came to California during the Okie Era, left in the past 2 years. Half went to Idaho and the other half, her sister’s clan moved to Arkansas. The Arkansas group LOVES IT heat, Mosquitoes, tornadoes and all! They were rock hard conservatives from Kern County who every day tell my wife about the pleasures of living in a FREE STATE. I just wish my wife would change her heart and we join her family there. I was born in southern Indiana and went to college in southern Louisiana… Read more »
I’m no fan of people intoxicating themselves, and subsequently being forced to defend themselves, or worse, operating dangerous equipment voluntarily. Regardless of the substance, means of self defense, or specifics of the equipment. That said, it’s a clever workaround to create a legal definition for addiction and or habitual use of a controlled substance that excludes weed.
So far I haven’t encountered any “hopped up potheads” acting irresponsibly with firearms. I might in some parts of Little Rock or Pine Bluff, but I don’t go there.
We are all subject to the 4473 form when legally purchasing guns and until we are all under the same rule as Hunter Biden state laws are a mute point . FJB and all lying cheating Democrats and RINOs.
Awesome! Government has absolutely zero constitutional authority to dictate what adults choose to put into their own bodies.