New Jersey: Cop's and POT

“I have clients with medical marijuana cards, that can’t purchase firearms, said FFL Gregg Kielma. Federal law is federal law, whether we like it or not. I guess drinking is ok and “pot” is not. Boy, do we have a flawed federal system. Now law enforcement?

Kielma continues, “Look I’m not condemning anyone, it just seems that laws should be the same at the state and federal level for everyone”. If you have a card, rescind it, if you want to purchase a firearm. It’s the only legal way to own a firearm owner.

From Dan: 

Federal law, it’s very, very clear that if you use Schedule 1 drugs, based on the federal guidelines, you’re not allowed to have a firearm. That’s very clear. And then New Jersey law is you cannot be a police officer without having a firearm. So in the case of a police officer doing something that results in, let’s say, injury or death and a lawsuit is filed after that, the city is responsible for tens of millions of dollars in liability because they’re obviously going to be in that lawsuit. The question is, why did the city allow the police officer to have a gun contrary to [federal] law?

Every other state has a carveout except for New Jersey. So we asked the attorney general to intervene. He didn’t. We asked the civil service to intervene. They didn’t. So we had no choice but to file a federal lawsuit. …

Look, I assume they support cannabis and, and being able to do whatever they want in their free time. But I don’t think that’s in the public’s best interest. And we shouldn’t be compromising standards of police officers, certainly in today’s day and age.

I mean, the standards to carry a firearm and be a police officer should be very, very high. And so just because there’s issues around recruiting, which is broader than allowing somebody to smoke cannabis or not, I don’t think that’s a valid reason why they should be allowed to [use cannabis], and I think a reasonable person would agree with me on that.

— Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop in Federal law says pot users can’t have guns. Jersey City mayor says that must mean cops, too.