The Biden administration is battling a Florida Democrat gubernatorial candidate on state marijuana law and the Second Amendment.
The Justice Department has come out to defend its federal ban on medical marijuana users after it was sued by Nikki Fried, the chief of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services who is running to unseat Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Fried is arguing banning medical marijuana users from possessing a gun is an infringement on an American's Second American rights, but the DOJ is arguing restrictions on gun possession are lawful and using marijuana impairs one's ability to handle guns.
Fried's lawsuit against the Biden DOJ cites the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which prohibits the DOJ from interfering in state medical marijuana laws, Reason.com reported.
The DOJ made a motion to dismiss Fried's lawsuit on the grounds that courts have "uniformly upheld" that federal law criminalizes gun possession by "unlawful users" of controlled substances. It also cited "empirical data and legislative determinations support a strong link between drug use and violence" and marijuana impairs "judgment, cognition and physical coordination," according to the report.
Also, the DOJ made a comparison of cannabis users to "the mentally ill," quoting a 2019 case where a federal appeals court wrote "habitual drug abusers, like the mentally ill, are more likely to have difficulty exercising self-control, making it dangerous for them to possess deadly firearms."
Federal laws still do not recognize legitimate use of marijuana, medical or not, and considers marijuana possession "a crime punishable by up to a year in prison."
While Fries is vying to unseat DeSantis as governor, the governor has backed Fried's April lawsuit against the Biden DOJ.
"The governor stands for protecting Floridians' constitutional rights — including Second Amendment rights," DeSantis' office wrote in a statement. "Floridians should not be deprived of a constitutional right for using a medication lawfully."