By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A U.S. District Court judge in Oklahoma has struck down a federal law prohibiting marijuana users from owning firearms, just days after a three-judge panel in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the government cannot prevent people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning or possessing firearms.
Judge Patrick Wyrick cited the June 2022 Bruen ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in his ruling, according to Reuters. A Donald Trump appointee, Judge Wyrick dismissed an indictment against Jared Michael Harrison, who had been charged under a decades-old law prohibiting gun possession by individuals who are users of controlled substances.
The Guardian is reporting Harrison was arrested by Lawton, Okla., police in May of last year during a traffic stop. When officers searched his car, they found marijuana and a loaded handgun. Harrison reportedly told officers he worked in a medical marijuana dispensary and was enroute to his job. He did not have a state-issued medical marijuana card, the report noted.
Federal prosecutors contended that the law prohibiting pot users from having guns is “consistent with a longstanding historical tradition in America of disarming presumptively risky persons, namely, felons, the mentally ill, and the intoxicated,” The Guardian noted.
But that didn’t wash with Judge Wyrick, who reportedly noted that Oklahoma law allows marijuana sales, and there are “more than 2,000 store fronts in the state.”
There is more to the story, as explained in Judge Wyrick’s 54-page order, which dismissed the indictment with prejudice. According to the document, when Harrision was pulled over, he was asked to step out of his car.
“When he did,” the document said, “the officer noticed that Harrison was wearing an ankle monitor. Harrison told the officer that he was on probation in Texas for an aggravated assault. The officer searched Harrison and found no contraband. The officer did not conduct a field sobriety test, nor did he request a blood draw to determine if Harrison was under the influence of marijuana or some other unlawful substance.
“Another officer arrived,” the document continued, “and the two officers searched Harrison’s car. They found a loaded revolver on the driver’s side floorboard; two prescription bottles in the driver’s side door, one empty and one containing partially smoked marijuana cigarettes; and a backpack in the passenger seat. The backpack contained marijuana, THC gummies, two THC vape cartridges, and a pre-rolled marijuana cigarette and marijuana stems in a tray.”
Harrison is not out of trouble. He is awaiting trial on state charges of possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and failure to obey a traffic signal. The federal indictment didn’t come down until last August.
