Nikki Fried 4473 guns marijuana weed lawsuit atf
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

By Lee Williams

Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has always been a bit of an enigma in the Sunshine State. She’s the only Democrat elected to statewide office. She’s running for governor against a popular Republican incumbent, Gov. Ron DeSantis, if she can make it through a tight Democratic primary. Her office oversees Florida’s Concealed Weapon and Firearm Licensing program, and she’s a former lobbyist for the cannabis industry and a vocal cannabis advocate.

Fried has said publicly she possesses both a Florida CWFL and a state medical marijuana card – Florida is one of 37 states that have legalized medicinal cannabis. This has raised questions about how Fried purchases firearms, because of the cannabis prohibition on the 4473. The form asks would-be gun purchasers if they are an unlawful drug user, and it explains that cannabis is still considered an illegal drug under federal law:

“Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.”

Lying on a 4473 is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Now, according to NBC News, Fried is suing the Biden-Harris administration, the ATF and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland over the cannabis prohibition on the 4473, claiming that it violates the Second Amendment rights of lawful cannabis users. She brought the lawsuit officially as the state’s Agriculture Commissioner, on behalf of three Floridians who she claims were barred from purchasing firearms based upon their use of medical cannabis.

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The suit has yet to be formally filed – NBC says they were given a draft copy, which Fried’s staff said they hoped to file today, on 4/20.

“Medical marijuana is legal. Guns are legal. This is all about people’s rights,” Fried told NBC News. “And I don’t care who I have to sue to fight for their freedom.”

Recently, Fried’s campaign for governor has been flailing. She has turned over her communication staff, but has yet to make significant headway against her primary opponent, Rep. Charlie Crist, who was recently endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Her 4/20 lawsuit could likely become a campaign issue, since a majority of Floridians support both medical and recreational cannabis use, and millions have obtained CWFLs.

Fried has repeatedly stressed she is a gun owner, but her stewardship of the CWFL program has been plagued with problems and lawsuits. Fried has also supported a lawsuit that seeks to overturn Florida’s powerful preemption statute, which allows only the state legislature to regulate firearms. Any local government official who violates the preemption statute can face civil fines of up to $5,000 – which they must pay personally – in addition to removal from office.

“Once again, Florida Republicans are attempting to punish local governments for taking actions to protect their communities. The penalties imposed by this law are draconian and unconstitutional. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: no one knows their communities better than those who are closest to the people. Republicans in Tallahassee need to stop punishing local officials for doing what their communities are electing them to do,” Fried said of the preemption statute in a statement last year.

The preemption statute is the bedrock for all of Florida’s pro-gun laws. If it is repealed, any county or city government could establish their own gun laws and gun-free zones. The lawsuit against the statue coincided with attacks on preemption statutes in other states, which were organized and funded by anti-gun groups.

 

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77 COMMENTS

  2. Having a medical marijuana card doesn’t mean that you use marijuana any more than a driver’s license in your pocket means that you drive a car. It simply means you have the legal option to do so.

    The staunch libertarian in me wants to eliminate all drug laws and all gun laws except for restrictions in preventing access and abuse for either consumer-product by children.

    • 100%.

      Everyone is entitled to go to hell however they choose. Giving people choices doesn’t mean they will make “good” choices, but . . . people didn’t think Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, or Galileo made “good choices”, either. Sometimes “bad” choices are bad, sometimes they are just people seeing a little further than we do. But then there are people like dacian the stupid and MinorIQ, who are just too stupid to make a good choice.

      • Lol and Lamp the wife beating sock sniffer knows what it is to be painfully stupid 🖕🤡.

        • avatar Geoff "A day without an obsessed, obviously brain-damaged and mentally-ill demented troll (who deserves to live in New Jersey) PR

          …and you have the vast, personal experience in living it in that department, little boy.

          What a tool! 🤣 🤣 🤣

        • Oh, HI!!!, nameless, brainless, d***less troll!!!

          I see you had a brain fart and decided to share it with the whole forum!! Next time? Don’t. Your idiocy isn’t worth exposing to the public, and you’ve never said/typed anything witty in your sorry-@$$ life. Perhaps you should return to your afternoon circle jerk, and let dacian the stupid and MinorIQ laugh at your worthless @$$. The rest of us are bored with you.

        • His name was “nameless, brainless, d***less troll”. Why do you ask? You should remember, but I guess you suck so many it challenges your recollection. dacian the stupid and MinorIQ say you’re a pretty good c*** sucker, with all the experience you have.

    • No, Craig, usually with mary-jew-wanna, your pupils get VERY large. Or so I’ve been told.

  5. One suspects this is mostly a campaign stunt of an increasingly desperate candidate.

    Nonetheless, I support the move. Not because I smoke weed (I don’t), but because marijuana use has no relevance to being able to exercise one’s 2A rights.

    • +1. It’s been over 50 years since I had any of the weed. I don’t drink or smoke. But I have no right to tell others that they cannot.

      Freedom is messy. If its done right.

      • You are not wrong, jwm. “Freedom”, if it means ANYTHING, means that you are entitled to go to hell however you choose to. I don’t judge, but I cop a major attitude about (i) people who judge me, and (ii) stupid people (like dacian the stupid and MinorIQ). In a sane world, Darwin would have eliminated them years ago. Hopefully before they propagated (not that either of them has a chance of feeling the touch of a woman).

        • She is anti-gun and especially anti CCW. She controlled the department of agriculture in FL. and permits were being slow walked to death.
          Maybe Gadson can weigh more in since he lives down there. I’m not sure what her play his here other get MJ users vote? Dunno.

        • Lol both of the (fat, unattractive) women who have had the misfortune of touching Lamp the contemptible wife beater now have no contact orders against him.

        • Dayum, nameless, brainless, d***less troll, you are certainly omnipresent today, aren’t you??? Still dumber than Balaam’s off ass, but you keep on spewing your stupid, not-even-playground level insults. I guess you’re just too damn dumb to know how stupid you sound to the rest of us.

          Go join the afternoon circle jerk, nameless, brainless, d***less troll, so dacian the stupid and MinorIQ have someone to laugh at. After all, there are few people in the world they can feel superior to . . . and you are one of them.

  6. “Fried has repeatedly stressed she is a gun owner, but her stewardship of the CWFL program has been plagued with problems and lawsuits.”

    She’s a piece of work, all right.

    I’ve heard from locals getting their carry permits that she takes the full 90 days required by law to issue them. Under her predecessor, Adam Putman, he got them out in around 2 week’s time… 🙁

  7. Is it possible to access MJ purchase records made with a MJ card, maybe file a FOIA , to see if she has used MJ. Would be fantastic to see a Libturd burned by their own laws.

  8. Hell I smoke weed and own guns legally. There is nothing wrong with doing both. Hell even at the same time. You are responsible for your actions and nobody else. If your actions don’t cause harm to anyone. Why the fuck not.

      • Lots and lots of gun owners operate firearms while legally intoxicated and do so without incident.

        • Intoxicated gun owners who waive their guns in the air outside their home are arrested all the time by the police.

          And intoxicated gun owners who wave their guns in the air inside their home, and fire off a round, are also arrested by the police all the time.

          Here is an example of an Intoxicated gun owner who wanted to wave his gun around in the air. If this guy had holstered his Handgun, or had his long gun at sling arms. The police would have no reason to arrest him.

          And to the drug legalization crowd. If you don’t know it. When you upholster your weapon in public, that is known as a threatening act. And the only reason to upholster your firearm, is to defend your life, the life of your loved ones, or perhaps the life of an innocent stranger.

          “Buckshot Facial at 40 Yards Stops Perp Pointing a Rifle” video 11 min long.
          Federal flight control shotgun ammo is what you need for your defensive shotgun. I’ve tested it. It’s incredible!!! Low recoil. Great for follow up shots.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbH1-Jeh7wE

      • o for pete’s sake, did you even read the link you’ve posted three times already?
        “To hold the ruling without being in violation of the Second Amendment, the court determined that their decision did “not place a severe burden on Wilson’s core right to defend herself with firearms.” The challenged Federal statutes and the ATF’s Open Letter only barred the sale of firearms to Wilson–not her right to possess them. The court offered alternative means of exercising her right to bear arms, suggesting that “Wilson could have amassed legal firearms before acquiring a registry card…[or] could acquire firearms[…]at any time by surrendering her registry card, thereby demonstrating to a firearms dealer that there is no reasonable cause to believe she is an unlawful drug user.”
        it only applies to acquiring more, and that’s relieved by surrendering the card.

        • tsbhoa.p.jr,

          As others have mentioned, it’s on YOU, the gun owner, to decide when you are capable of reasonably handling a firearm. If I have a Scotch-tasting session with some of my friends (I do, since they think I have a nice collection of single malts), go to bed slightly “impaired”, and someone breaks in, I am foreclosed from defending myself?? Yeah, stick that s*** where the sun don’t shine. I will decide when, where, and how I keep, bear, and use arms . . . just like the Constitution said I could.

  9. Looks like time for me to buy a case of mocrowave popcorn…………………….. LOL this ought to be interesting.
    On a side note I’ve been wondering how long before the ATF prohibits tobacco smokers from firearms?

  11. As I said before. The marijuana legalization crowd has always been anti-civil rights. They have never supported the Second Amendment. Their stated goals in the 1970’s was “to legalize pot so there would be no reason, for thge black drug dealers to have guns”.
    Even during the crack epidemic of the 1980’s they continued to say, that if they could just legalized all drugs, all the crime would just go away in the Inner City.

    This is the reason why you will never see the marijuana billionaires donate money to any gun civil rights organizations. They are no different than Michael Bloomberg who does not smoke marijuana at all.

    These people know deep down in their hearts that drugs and guns do not mix. They publicly stated it decades ago. The problem is they discovered that when, they as white people, got into the legalized marijuana business. They soon discovered what the black marijuana dealers already knew.

    That criminals will steal from white people too. And now of course they want THEIR guns. But they still don’t support the 2A.

    The white marijuana dealers thought they were immune from being attacked by criminals. Possibly because these white people never grew up around criminals. Or do they grow up in neighborhoods populated with very few criminals. They really could leave their doors unlocked at night. So they had a very different mindset compared to the rest of the world.

    And these white drug legalization advocates have never believed in the concept of personal responsibility and the consequences that go along with drug use. And most of them never had to deal with a drug addict in their family. It was only something they read about.

    They are utopians because they believe all the crime will just go away.

    • In a way the utopian left is correct. Crime will go away if drugs are legalized, or at least the drug possession crimes will. You have to remember that drugs themselves are not inherently bad or good. They are simply illegal by statute. At least when the do-gooders made alcohol illegal they did so with a constitutional amendment but I don’t recall the Constitutional Amendment that made street drugs illegal.

        • They outlawed alcohol with the 18th Amendment. Under today’s laws street drugs are regulated by a law passed by Congress in 1982 that divides all drugs into various classes.

      • By supporting a law (Prop 47) that would raise the amount of what is considered a misdemeanor ($950) in the not so golden state. The drug legalization revealed to the world they have never supported private property rights.
        They had already revealed themselves to be very racist people. But now they also believe that the middle and lower classes of Americans do not deserve the same protections against criminals. That the legalization crowd supports for wealthy business owners.

        This crowd has no moral disagreement with drug use. And they have no moral disagreement with stealing to support your drug habit. Because the drug legalization crowd wants to encourage drug use.

        They know a drug addict is incapable of honestly paying for their drugs through honest labor.

        They actually tried to make it law in California that you could not fire an employee who showed up intoxicated for work. Their first attempt several years ago fail. But I’m sure they will try again and I’m sure that it will pass and become law in California. Because that is how the vast majority of Voters think in California.

        California is on its way to becoming that “Symbiosis” episode in Star Trek the Next Generation.

        btw
        The drug legalization crowd always used the argument that legalizing drugs and taxing it like tobacco was a good thing. They said it would be a great new revenue stream for the government. These people have always been socialist progressive in their political orientation.

        They are parasites. They need normal people who contribute to society in order for their perverted world to keep existing. And to grow this world as big as they want it to be.

        And yes there are a lot of totally clueless people in the drug legalization crowd. They have no idea of the history, of the drug legalization advocates, and the things they said decades ago.

    • Yes, legal pot growers and sellers can still be robbed. That is a hell of a lot better than the gang turf and street wars over distribution locations. Have you ever heard of the employees of 2 pot dispensaries shooting it out over territory?

      No one that I know of ever claimed that ALL crime would go away. Just that the crime related to illegal smuggling and illegal sales would go away. If you do that with heroin it will stop unintentional overdoses too. Then we can stop hearing about the damn “opioid epidemic” that government caused in the first place.

      • “No one that I know of ever claimed that ALL crime would go away.”

        You sound like those left Wingers who said, “they didn’t know anyone who voted for Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan”.

        They crushed the Democrats in the national elections.

        As a teenager all the adults around me in California said they dreamed of a day when the black drug dealers would no longer need guns. Because when drugs were made legal. “There will be no need for the drug dealers to have guns”.

        Now that white Legalized drug dealers are being robbed all the sudden they want guns to protect themselves. The drug legalization crowd has no history of supporting the second amendment’s civil rights.

        They are totally surprised about being robbed. They never thought it would happen to them.

        • obviously prohibition of anything–drugs, guns, alcohol–will fuel black market sales. conversely legalizing things–drugs, guns, alcohol–will reduce black market sales. it’s pretty basic economics and has little to do with politics. if you need an example you can study the history of the 18th amendment.

        • It only changes which direction the smuggling is going. Doesn’t do jack to how much is smuggled.

      • “Yes, legal pot growers and sellers can still be robbed.”

        And by the police, no less, as an armored car company that serviced pot dispensaries found out the hard way not long back. 🙁

        • Yes I remember reading that story. That’s why I say when the drug legalization crowd, got in bed with a government, they came up with “syphilis on the brain”.

          “Why Do Legalizers Keep Blocking Pot Banking?”

          Answer, because they were never really serious about legalization. They get political mileage out of having a certain number of the population, entangled in the legal system. It makes a great political fundraiser for the Democrat Party.

          https://reason.com/2022/04/14/why-do-legalizers-keep-blocking-pot-banking/

    • Even if she purchased it, doesn’t mean it was for her, it could be that she has a relative that is licensed, but may not be able to go to the shop because of disabilities of home location.

    • Chriss T , you are using too broad a brush on this subject imo.

      I am a medical use advocate for MJ. Don’t nessasirily care if a State legalizes it for recreational use either as that accomplishes the goal. The goal being that Cancer patients and others suffering can use and get easily.

      I have not smoked MJ since I was a kid in the 70s. I would ask you that if Heroin was legalized would you automictically use it? No, probably not. Question you have to ask is ‘why not?’

      • You are using medicine. I have no problem with people using any medicine. If it work’s, good. Even heroin has real medical use for some patients. It’s the “snake oil” people that cause me concern. They are in it for the $$$. And abusing any medicine is a crime. They will tell you pot, heroine, etc, will solve all your problems.

        “I would ask you that if Heroin was legalized would you automictically use it? No, probably not. Question you have to ask is ‘why not?’”

        ansewer. No, because my parents worked in drug rehab for over 4 years. So I know excatly what drugs do to people.

    • Chris, how would you like to see weed handled legally speaking? What is your ideal set of laws and punishments surrounding the topic? Federally and or state level.

  12. Lol
    If marijuana we’re legal then it wouldn’t be part of any of this and there would be no argument to base a suit on. Marijuana is NOT legal.

    If your going to argue ‘states rights’ then take this suit to the governor. Not the ATF, the president, or anyone else at the federal level. Otherwise this all falls somewhere between uselessness, lawlessness, and an effort to manipulate a feeble president.

    This is the type of confusion that results from the incorrect terminology be used and the spread of misinformation.

    It might be better to simply remove the Brady law all together.

    • That’s my point. As a drug legalization advocate, Nikki Fried does not support the Second Amendment at all. She simply wants her gun. And as the person in charge she is preventing everyone else from getting their gun.

      She like most of the drug legalization advocates, believes legalizing pot is far more important, than upholding Second Amendment civil rights.

      And I find it very revealing that the “drug legalization intellectuals” are not pointing out the fact, that one of their own, is against gun ownership. Because If you support legalizing drugs, but you don’t support owning guns, that’s okay with these intellectuals.

        • “Smoke a fat blunt today, and go buy that gun you wanted tomorrow”

          Is that so the gun store owner will not smell marijuana on you? And thereby give him a perfectly legitimate reason to not sell you a firearm. Because the business owner does not trust you to be a law-abiding, possibly new, gun owner.

          The gun stores where I live have signs posted on them stating, if you smell like marijuana don’t even bother coming in. Because they will not sell you anything. But I do understand that Tyrone, Chad, and Lee, are selling guns from the trucks of their cars, in the alley down the street. You can buy them there as well.

        • The Firearms Policy Coalition has only been around since 2016. Do you have any examples from the 1970’s? The 1980’s? The 1990’s?? The beginning of the 21st century?

  13. If you have just applied for an Oregon Medical Marijuana Program patient card, you can do whatever the Heck you want in the State of Oregon. Not only are you at liberty to operate a massive, unlicensed grow in a rental property (without your landlord’s knowledge or consent), to produce marijuana that can then be smuggled to other states, Yamhill County Judge Ladd Wiles will give you a free pass for shooting a 12 gauge shotgun at your landlord’s children in retaliation for efforts to evict. Even more amazing, Judge Wiles doesn’t even understand that the production and distribution of marijuana remains a Federal Felony even though his own wife, former US Attorney for the State of Oregon Amanda S Marshall, was eagerly invoking civil forefeiture of properties used for marijuana grows when she wasn’t to busy having sex with her subordinates at the US Attorney’s office. (Google it)

    • Yes I do remember you talking about this story a few years ago. And I did look it up. The immorality of the drug legalization crowd is well-known. It is why they have been unsuccessful in their drug legalization efforts.

      They have only been successful at turning State’s and cities into sh!tholes. They are great examples for the rest of American society TO NOT follow. Drug legalization leads to gun confiscation.

      All the states/cities legalizing pot are also working toward trying to confiscate guns.

  14. Is there any specific definition of “drug user”. If someone used drugs a month before buying a gun, are the a drug user? What about a year? 10 years? Ever? What about a week? or a day?

    • the federal prohibition is for who are considered an “unlawful user” of any “controlled substance.” ATF has defined an “unlawful user” as “A person who uses a controlled substance and has lost the power of self-control with reference to the use of controlled substance; and any person who is a current user of a controlled substance in a manner other than as prescribed by a licensed physician.” See 27 CFR 478.11. It would seem like this definition would exclude cannabis prescribed by a doctor, however ATF believes medical cannabis patients are “unlawful users of or addicted to controlled substances.” See: https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/all-ffls-sept2011-open-letter-marijuana-medicinal-purposes/download. Such letters do not carry force of law, but are persuasive in federal court.

  15. Remember, lying to the government is your patriotic duty as an American citizen.

    Smoke a fat blunt today, and go buy that gun you wanted tomorrow, as the founders intended.

    • “Smoke a fat blunt today, and go buy that gun you wanted tomorrow”

      Is that so the gun store owner will not smell marijuana on you? And thereby give him a perfectly legitimate reason to not sell you a firearm. Because the business owner does not trust you to be a law-abiding, possibly new, gun owner.

      The gun stores where I live have signs posted on them stating, if you smell like marijuana don’t even bother coming in. Because they will not sell you anything. But I do understand that Tyrone, Chad, and Lee, are selling guns from the trucks of their cars, in the alley down the street. You can buy them there as well.

      • Not surprised by the strident doper response here. Stupid is a stupid does. You made my point…

        • It’s okay. They can be passionate about their position. Just as I can be passionate about mine.

  16. Well, decorum prevents me from expressing my opinion of Secretary Fried. My 94 year old mother would slap my teeth out of my mouth if I did. The whole “never speak rudely of a lady” thing. Even if she deserves it..

    • Not to worry, Gadsden,

      Nikki “Brain” Fried is many things, but she is NOT, and never has been, a “lady”. If your grandmother knew Nikki, she would agree.

  17. I bet Nikki Fried is one of the most popular politicians in the State of Florida if not the entire United States. Because she supports legalizing pot. To them it doesn’t matter that she doesn’t support the second amendment.
    Potheads got gun grabbing governors elected in California and Colorado. And their “marijuana legislation wet dreams” were fulfilled. And Gun civil rights are slowly being repealed in both of those States.

  18. An interesting roll of the dice, to be sure.

    Is she trying to get MMJ cards ruled invalid due to federal law? Have the 2A prevail or have the Commerce Clause prevail where the court validates the current status quo that statute overrules the BoR?

    Given her past history I somehow doubt she wants to 2A to prevail here, she’s not exactly the ardent libertarian type. Sure, she supports gay couples having marijuana farms but I doubt she supports them defending said farms with full-autos.

    I mean, there’s no doubt that the 4473 violates people’s rights, including that of marijuana users. Yet, technically, it’s hard to argue that there are legal marijuana users due to the current DEA scheduling of marijuana.

    One can point out that the scheduling is a joke and that this isn’t government’s business and that the 2A should trump DEA scheduling protocols even if those are a power given by statute but… that doesn’t necessarily make it so.

    And, honestly, there are loads of things that are far more egregious rights violations by fedgov (and other govs) that virtually no one actually cares about and if you bring them up then you “must be” pro-whatever that thing is because most people are propagandized into unthinking acceptance of God’s .Gov’s Holy Writ.

    Yeah, I support this move but I do question the motive. The 4473 should be changed. It should be changed in to not existing along with the agency that created the form in the first place.

  19. Nothing more than a publicity stunt. Sadly, it will work. I can hear the bleating of millions of bipedal ruminants celebrating this.

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