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Support Assembly Bill 236 / Senate Bill 237 Regarding firearms and confidentiality of medical marijuana patients.

Assembly Bill 236 is assigned to the 2019 Assembly Committee on State Affairs chaired by Republican Rob Swearingen from Rhinelander. Swearingen recently had negative public statements regarding marijuana reform archived here. Recent polling in his district shows that 63% of his constituents surveyed during the “Spring GOP Survey supported medical marijuana.

The companion bill in the Senate, SB 237 was sent to the Committee on Public Benefits, Licensing and State-Federal Relations chaired by Republican Chris Kapenga from Delafield.

Under current law, when a person purchases a handgun, the firearms dealer may not transfer the handgun to the purchaser until the dealer requests the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a firearms restrictions record search to determine if the purchaser is prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.

DOJ must conduct an identical search on a person who applies for a license to carry a concealed weapon. This bill prohibits DOJ, when conducting a search to determine if a person is prohibited from possessing a firearm, from considering if the person participates in a medical marijuana program that is legal under state or federal law.

This bill also prohibits the Department of Health Services from disclosing to any federal agency the registry status of a person who participates in a medical marijuana registry program that is legal under state or federal law.