1:33 AM, Oct. 1, 2011
Michigan's medical-marijuana users can't catch a break.
Three major state appeals court decisions have gone against them in the last month. Now, federal authorities have issued an order that licensed medical-marijuana users nationwide can't possess a gun.
That means no hunting, no target shooting, no gun collecting and no guns for personal protection -- even by patients who legally cultivate marijuana crops -- according to a Sept. 21 directive to prosecutors nationwide from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The ban is an insult to Michigan's medical-marijuana community, said Rick Thompson, editor of the Chesterfield Township-based Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine.
The magazine is sending a letter to the National Rifle Association "to inform them of their potential loss of membership in 17 medical-marijuana states," including Michigan, and to enlist the NRA's help in fighting the ban, Thompson said.
"A lot of people who hunt are very upset," he said Friday.
But medical-marijuana user William Lisowski, 60, a retired Detroit police officer who lives in Sterling Heights, said guns don't belong around marijuana.
"When you mix the two, you're asking for trouble," Lisowski said.
