{"id":6076,"date":"2018-01-12T16:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T21:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6076"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:49:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:49:38","slug":"pa-regulators-reverse-course-medical-marijuana-wont-stop-patient-gun-purchases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6076","title":{"rendered":"Pa. regulators reverse course; Medical marijuana won&#8217;t stop patient gun purchases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"h-group space-half--btm\">\n<h1 class=\"lead__headline\">Pa. regulators reverse course; Medical marijuana won&#8217;t stop patient gun purchases<\/h1>\n<p><time class=\"date gray\"><strong>Updated:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong class=\"fw--500 no-wrap upper\">JANUARY 12, 2018 \u2014 7:01 PM EST<\/strong><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"social-share cf sticky-social\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<header class=\"article__header article__header--btm rel\">\n<div class=\"shift-left--900 rel\">\n<div class=\"shift-left--inner--900 pad-col--left\">\n<div class=\"article-meta cf pad--top pad--btm border--btm border--top\">\n<div class=\"unify article-meta__text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">by\u00a0<a class=\"open-modals js-open-author-modal-1\"><b>Sam Wood<\/b><\/a>, Staff Writer\u00a0<a class=\"fw--500 no-wrap\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/samwoodiii\">\u00a0@samwoodiii<\/a>\u00a0<span class=\"gray--med\">|\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"fw--500 no-wrap\" href=\"mailto:samwood@phillynews.com\">\u00a0samwood@phillynews.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article__content text cl\">\n<p>Pennsylvania will no longer\u00a0provide the names of medical marijuana patients to law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6078\" src=\"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-1024x685.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"685\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-768x514.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/IMG_2561.jpg 1116w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-sidebar\"><\/div>\n<p>The state Department of Health made the announcement late Friday afternoon in the wake of an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/business\/cannabis\/patients-medical-marijuana-2nd-amendment-rights-gun-20171228.html\">Inquirer and Daily News story<\/a>\u00a0that called attention to the fact that marijuana patients would not be able to buy firearms.<\/p>\n<p>The department also called for the federal government to reclassify marijuana, essentially demanding that it legalize cannabis on a national level. Currently, the Drug Enforcement Administration considers all forms of the plant to be \u201cwithout any accepted medical use,\u201d \u201chighly addictive,\u201d and on par with LSD and heroin. Last week U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed Obama-era policies and said federal prosecutors had the discretion to crack down on participants in state-legal marijuana programs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ym_774496536100543797\" class=\"ym\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cPennsylvania, and the other 28 states where medical marijuana is legal, need the federal government to recognize what voters and bipartisan legislatures across the nation have overwhelmingly called for, and that is that medical marijuana must be rescheduled as a Schedule II medication,\u201d the Health Department statement read. Other Schedule II drugs include oxycodone and fentanyl.<\/p>\n<p>About 13,000 Pennsylvanians have applied to participate in the state program. If all goes as planned, the first crop of medical marijuana will be harvested Jan. 27 and shipped to dispensaries the second week of February.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the state\u2019s medical cannabis\u00a0regulations\u00a0required the Health Department to post a database of patient\u00a0names\u00a0to an online portal called JNET, used by 38,000 law enforcement professionals in the state.<\/p>\n<p>The idea had been to provide some legal protection for patients. If\u00a0a patient was\u00a0stopped carrying doctor-recommended marijuana, an officer would have scanned a medical marijuana ID card to learn if the holder was a current participant in the program. In theory, that would have provided the patient with\u00a0some immunity.<\/p>\n<p>But the JNET information also would have stopped a patient from buying a gun. The data could be accessed in a background check while buying a firearm. A positive result would have stopped the patient from\u00a0owning a weapon and obtaining the ammunition to load it. In addition, federal law enforcement agencies would have had access to the information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeeping the patient registry out of JNET vastly improves privacy,\u201d said advocate Chris Goldstein, who writes the \u201cPhilly420\u201d column for Philly.com. \u201cNo one should be entered into a law enforcement database just for being seriously ill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A bipartisan outcry led by marijuana, gun and privacy advocates spurred state officials to reshape state policy.\u00a0Patient medical marijuana cards will no longer be scanned and run through\u00a0the state computer network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the case that law enforcement needs to verify a patient\u2019s participation in the program, they will rely on the patient\u2019s medical marijuana ID card,\u201d a Health Department spokeswoman said. \u201cWhile federal law prohibits anyone to purchase a firearm while using medical marijuana, a patient\u2019s status in the program will not be verified during the background check process through JNET.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Retrieved from: http:\/\/www.philly.com\/philly\/business\/cannabis\/pa-medical-marijuana-law-enforcement-stop-patient-gun-purchases-feds-legalize-20180112.html<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pa. regulators reverse course; Medical marijuana won&#8217;t stop patient gun purchases Updated:\u00a0JANUARY 12, 2018 \u2014 7:01 PM EST \u00a0 by\u00a0Sam Wood, Staff Writer\u00a0\u00a0@samwoodiii\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0samwood@phillynews.com Pennsylvania will no longer\u00a0provide the names of medical marijuana patients to law enforcement agencies. The state Department of Health made the announcement late Friday afternoon in the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}