To date, cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized in 23 states, and 32 states have passed medical marijuana laws. This means that 74% of Americans live in a state where marijuana is legal for either recreational or medical use, and 54% live in a state where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Yet within each state lies a hidden population: a group of gun owners who are now considered criminals by the federal government because they choose to use a plant as their medicine. Gun dealers are also confused about their ability to sell firearms to...
To date, cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized in 23 states, and 32 states have passed medical marijuana laws. This means that 74% of Americans live in a state where marijuana is legal for either recreational or medical use, and 54% live in a state where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Yet within each state lies a hidden population: a group of gun owners who are now considered criminals by the federal government because they choose to use a plant as their medicine. Gun dealers are also confused about their ability to sell firearms to cannabis users, as they too are considered criminals if they allow guns to be bought by known cannabis consumers.
On the safety side of gun ownership, prohibitionists claim that cannabis use leads to increased suicide ideation and completed suicides, which is another argument to prohibit cannabis users from owning firearms. While there is limited research on the concerns related to gun ownership and cannabis use, robust evidence suggests that the rates of both suicide ideation and completed suicides decrease after states legalize regulated access to cannabis. In this episode of Cannabis Nurse Truths, we explore the issues surrounding this untenable choice: Cannabis or Guns, You Can’t Have Both.
EPISODE RESOURCES
Anderson, D. M., Rees, D. I., & Sabia, J. J. (2014). Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicides by Gender and Age. American Journal of Public Health, 104(12), 2369–2376. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301612
Andreuccetti, G., Ye, Y., Kang, J., Korcha, R., Witbrodt, J. A., Carvalho, H. B., & Cherpitel, C. J. (2017). The Effects of Acute Cannabis Use on Nontraffic Injury Risk: Reviewing the Available Literature and Identifying Ways Forward. Contemporary Drug Problems, 44(2), 147-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091450917710763
Bartos, B. J., Kubrin, C. E., Newark, C., & McCleary, R. (2020). Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 24(2), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2019.1612803
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (2019, May 2). Information and Examples of the Application of Title 18, United States Code (U.S.C.),Section 922, Subsection (g)(3):
PERSONS WHO ARE UNLAWFUL USERS OF OR ADDICTED TO ANY
CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/tribal/media/1135246/dl?inline=
Grucza, R. A., Hur, M., Agrawal, A., Krauss, M. J., Plunk, A. D., Cavazos-Rehg, P. A., Chaloupka, F. J., & Bierut, L. J. (2015). A reexamination of medical marijuana policies in relation to suicide risk. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 152, 68–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.04.014
Jaeger, K. (2023, December 8). Medical Marijuana Growers And Caregivers Can Own Guns, But Patients Can't, FBI Says In Little-Noticed Memo. Retrieved from https://www.marijuanamoment.net/medical-marijuana-growers-and-caregivers-can-own-guns-but-patients-cant-fbi-says-in-little-noticed-memo/
Marijuana Policy Project. (n.d.). Marijuana Policy Reforms and the Second Amendment. Retrieved from https://www.mpp.org/policy/federal/secondamendment/
Rylander, M., Valdez, C., & Nussbaum, A. M. (2014). Does the legalization of medical marijuana increase completed suicide? The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 40(4), 269–273. https://doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2014.910520
Schanie, A. (2024, Dec. 11). Starting Jan. 1, Kentuckians will have to choose between medical marijuana or firearms. Retrieved from https://www.wdrb.com/news/starting-jan-1-kentuckians-will-have-to-choose-between-medical-marijuana-or-firearms/article_730a16b6-b80c-11ef-9721-93daace5ff86.html
Small, C. (2023, April 17). The Intersection Between Marijuana and the 2nd Amendment: What Gun Owners Need to Know. Retrieved from https://www.clarkhill.com/news-events/news/the-intersection-between-marijuana-and-the-2nd-amendment-what-gun-owners-need-to-know/
Times Observer. (2025, February 24). DA to not seek re-election, admits marijuana use and eyes shift to advocacy. Retrieved from https://www.timesobserver.com/news/local-news/2023/12/da-to-not-seek-re-election/
U.S. v. Cooper, 224 F. App'x 537 (7th Cir. 2007). Retrieved from https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/02/241998P.pdf
