News » Guns, Weed, and Oregon’s Medical Marijuana and Concealed Carry Laws

The issue of firearms ownership (and use) and marijuana ownership (and use) is central to our understanding of our rights as individual humans and as Americans. Our culture is built upon personal liberty and freedom and is exemplified by how we (should) be treating both issues. They cut to the core of our rights as both humans and as patients.

This viewpoint is exemplified in the documentary film Guns And Weed: The Road to Freedom, directed by well-known indie filmmaker and author Michael W. Dean. The film mixes medical marijuana advocates and growers, members of the Tea Party and patriot movements, and firearms enthusiasts and constitutional rights activists.

Using a combination of documentary interviews, news-style narration, rap videos, and dramatized examples, Guns and Weed explains the intimate tie between two freedoms that are often considered very separate from one another.

Nowhere is this illustrated more than in Oregon where a medical marijuana patient has fought for and won her right to carry a concealed weapon. The battle continued to the Oregon Supreme Court, whose decision is pending.

The whole thing started when medical marijuana patient Cynthia Willis had her concealed carry (CCW) permit denied by Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters based on a federal law that prohibits drug users from possessing guns. Willis took the sheriff to court, arguing that the Oregon CCW law does not specifically deny permits to MMJ patients.

She won. When the sheriff appealed, she won again. So the sheriff re-issued her permit, but appealed again. The case has gone to the Oregon State Supreme Court, where arguments were heard on Thursday. A decision will be given in the next few months.

Tags: ccw, concealed carry, guns and weed, law, medical marijuana, michael w dean, MMJ, Oregon