Possession and Legalization of Medical Marijuana: Illinois Scraps Gun Ban On 420 Users

A controversial policy proposal in Illinois that would have banned medicinal marijuana users from owning a firearm was scrapped Friday after advocates for Second Amendment rights and marijuana proponents urged lawmakers against the proposal, Fox News reported.

Opposition groups argued that the proposal, which came from the Illinois Department of Public Health, made it unfair for medical marijuana users as they would have had to choose between owning a gun or their medication.

A federal regulation prohibits the "shipping, transporting, receiving or possessing firearms or ammunition," while under a controlled substance and with the proposal now dropped, the state is in violation of the law.

ATF spokeswoman Dannette Seward told Fox that the U.S. government has no plans to change the designation of marijuana, which is classified on the same level as heroin.

"There are no exceptions in federal law for marijuana used for medicinal or recreational purposes," Seward said.

After firearms dealers began coming across potential buyers who would provide their medical marijuana cards as identification, many of them wrote to ATF asking what steps and measures they should take.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued a memo on Sept. 21, 2011, which stated that a person who legally owns a firearm while using marijuana -- recreational or medicinal -- is violating federal law. Following the memo, many gun dealers in Nevada and Washington began denying licenses to prospective buyers that had medical marijuana cards.

According to Fox, Illinois is known as being the strictest state on its medical marijuana program in the nation. Illinois citizens purchasing a handgun in the state are asked if they are an "unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance" on a federal form.

The state has yet to launch its medical marijuana program amid continuing discussions on the establishment of state laws toward medicinal users.