We should stop criminalizing drug use and drug addiction. That is the foundational problem. If you solved for that, you’d solve the whole problem here, without having to go back to 1791 to figure it out. It is this country’s puritanical obsession with recreational drug use that is the problem, not the legal principle that says “convicted felons should probably not have weapons.”
Will this Republican Congress repeal the Hunter Biden law? No, certainly not. But why didn’t Democrats repeal it when they controlled Congress? Why didn’t Biden pardon everybody who was convicted under this stupid law, instead of only his son? I know I’m crying over milk that spilled, curdled, and got stepped on so much it’s now cheese, but when I say I want Democrats to run on a decriminalization platform, this is what I’m talking about. There is a solution to this problem; it just requires Congress to do its job.
This is not the job for the courts. The Supreme Court should follow the law, even this part of this law which is demonstrably dumb and ill-conceived. The last thing we should want is for Clarence Thomas to invent some ahistorical claptrap for why another group of people must have unfettered access to weapons just because some knight of the Round Table was getting high on nightshade before going out to joust.
The expansion of gun rights is never the right answer. The decriminalization of drug addiction usually is. Let’s keep our eyes on the eight ball.
— Elie Mystal in Don’t Fall for the Supreme Court’s “Pro-Weed” Gun Case
“The decriminalization of drug addiction…”
To be accurate….
Drug addiction has never been criminalized. It is not against the law to be addicted. Its the manufacture, posesssion, use, sales, purchase, transport, trafficking
that is criminalized. One is free to be addicted as much as they want without penalty as long as they don’t do or participate in or facilitate those other things.
If addiction were criminalized the drug issue would be easy to solve, just lock up everyone addicted and the drug market would collapse. Instead, we have addicts receive treatment and rehab instead of putting them in jail because being addicted is not a criminalized.
“It is this country’s puritanical obsession with recreational drug use that is the problem
…
The decriminalization of drug addiction usually is.”
There’s two different things being conflated here in this rather ignorant missive by Mystal.
Recreational use and addiction are two different things.
Addiction is a chronic condition characterized by an intense compulsion to use a substance despite negative consequences. Recreational use involves occasional use for pleasure or social reasons without significant negative impact on one’s life.
So what is Mystal asking for here? Decriminalization of recreational use, or decriminalization of addiction which technically and accurately has never been criminalized.
Mystal has this habit of pontificating on subjects he does not understand and ends up with saying nothing of consequence. His mainstay in most everything he spouts is conflating dissimilar things to reach a conclusion that says nothing like he did here.
“The expansion of gun rights is never the right answer. ”
sigh….ok this BS is pure BS. No one is asking for an “expansion of gun rights”. That’s not what the pot thing is about, its about determining if already existing ‘guns rights’ (called the Second Amendment) applies to those who use pot.
Like I said, Mystal has this habit of pontificating on subjects he does not understand and ends up with saying nothing of consequence.
“expansion of gun rights”
This is a typical anti-gun thing when it comes to guns. They claim because someone is able to exercise the 2A contrary to their desires that its an “expansion of gun rights”, for example, they claimed that ‘permittless carry’ was an “expansion of gun rights” when in reality it wasn’t and was just exercise of the 2A. The very phrase use by them presumes that any exercise of the second amendment is a ‘granted permission by government’ and not a constitutional right. This is why their, sometimes, claims of ‘we support the second amendment’ is false, they support their version of their ‘second amendment’ which is government granted and controlled permissions. It says ‘…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” and does not allow for a concept of ‘granted permission by government’ thus no such thing as an “expansion of gun rights” because ‘gun rights’ are inclusively already part of the 2A as ‘arms’ which was also intended by the founders to include firearms and a ‘meaning and intent’ of the 2A by the founders and further codified in federal law and many SCOTUS decisions so how can the ownership and use and possession of firearms be an “expansion of gun rights” when it already existed as a right?
The anti-gunners like making up things.
When the constitution says ‘free speech rights’ (i.e first amendment), and courts said its protected free speech to criticize government was that an ‘expansion of speech rights’? No, it wasn’t as it was already inclusive as a right in the meaning and intent of the First Amendment just as ownership and use and possession of firearms is for the Second Amendment.
There is no such thing as “expansion of gun rights”.
I can’t accept people who live as a stereotype avatar seriously.
It’s like before he pressed the start button on life he selected “black philosopher” from the list.
Him and that guy with the big gap in his teeth.
I wish “black academic” would make a comeback. More box cuts, bowties and retro glasses.
How in the world does anyone like this get published???? Author is contradictory. Author doesn’t state the actual facts of the argument…. It’s like listening to a 7 year old argue for something cool they saw in a cartoon!
Addiction isn’t illegal…. If so Fat people would be in violation….
It’s all the activities that are directly, and I do mean directly related to drug addiction that are the issue!! I believe, although it’s not stated, this article is referencing whether or not card carrying marijuana users should be allowed to also own a weapon…. That to me IS a fair question. Recreational use, in my understanding, is for someone who takes a couple hits in their house on a Friday night while they’re watching TV or in the garage etc, relaxing, chilling out. How do we base MY opinion VRS someone else of rec into a law? IMO rec is different from a person who wakes and bakes and never ceases to stop hitting it. These words recreational and addiction are up for discussion and interpretation, and not clear enough to be enforced. Some people hit it every day and say they’re not addicted…. So where is the limit…?? Exactly, there can’t be a clear definition. We have ZERO way to tell if they’re recreational, or a hard core dealer!! If we are being honest, what we do know with 100% certainty is that marijuana indeed alters the state of one’s mind. Sadly, it’s also the exact same thing for alcohol……. Simple answer is brain altered state=no life altering weapons allowed.
My only resolve is so disappointing….. if you are willfully using an altering substance, and caught with firearm, (obviously while lawfully being detained for a unlawful exploit) I believe you should have a consequence but dannnnnngitttt I can’t bring myself to say it should be loss of 2A, whether for X amount of time or loss of handgun and CCW rights – there isn’t any way to differentiate rec and addiction…. So, this is when one group ruins it for everyone, and we the people have to say NO, NO you cannot carry a life ending weapon while being chemically altered. You cannot drive a vehicle while doing so, or YOU LOSE your right to drive said vehicle.
FML
SMH
I can’t believe I put that in writing….
I’m literally a 2A businessman-
Well well.
“Now you are standing in my Grid square.”
Something my CSM at Ft Bragg NC, would say to us when one of our soldiers was F ing up. And he heard about it before we did.
I’ve been saying this for decades. The le; g@ l;izat ion cr0wd has never ever supported the Second Amendment. And if the gun owning pot heads don’t know that???
Then you don’t know the history of the group you have become associated with.
“Just make it legal and all the crime will go away”
They been always been lying to you. It’s just that the gun owning pot heads just refused to face the truth. Now everyone hears it because of the wide distribution of the internet.
It’s only really been in the last 5 years that pot heads have been thinking the 2A was a good think.
Unfortunately, the podheads, the h0:m 0s ez:u@ls and the @th;e ist:s. All gun owners, have worked to pass gun control. Because they vote for these politicians.
Because making it legal has always been their first priority, not the individual right to keep and bear arms.
They are not 2A allies, but they certainly do own a lot of guns.
When you become more like Tammy Bruce, and less like Rosie O’Donnell???
You let me know.
In 2012 in Washington State, it was the computer tech company owners, like Paul Allen, who worked to pass gun control in that state. And at the same time, legalize drugs.
You see a private tyrant, or a government Tyrant. Would prefer that the population always be distracted by “bread and circuses” and intoxication.
And look, what Seattle has become after all those years have passed
They have never believed in accepting the responsibility and consequences that comes with Freedom.
Don’t Walk, Run! Productions: Cringe Jean-Pierre: New Hair; Same Old Lies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfoLT8igW-E
DOJ Drops the Hammer on Nancy Pelosi After She Threatens to Jail ICE Agents.
“This week, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again decided that protecting illegal immigrants is more important than protecting law enforcement officers or the rule of law. In a joint statement with fellow California Democrat Rep. Kevin Mullin, Pelosi went so far as to threaten ICE agents with arrest if they dare to enforce immigration laws in the Bay Area, and now the Department of Justice just dropped a hammer on them.
…”
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/10/24/doj-drops-the-hammer-on-nancy-pelosi-after-she-threatens-to-jail-ice-agents-n4945218
Democrats Have to Be Panicking Over the Latest Inflation Report.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/10/24/democrats-have-to-be-panicking-over-the-latest-inflation-report-n4945216
They already tried making drugs legal in Oregon and it didn’t work out very well! In fact it was a disaster!!
Justice or vigilanteism: Did Arkansas father do the right thing to protect his daughter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSuIXnlbQck
More left wing violence and left wing willing to expose their children to danger and violence to use as props in the name of left wing violence: Anti-ICE activist attacks journalist Cam Higby during Portland protest.
“Wilson had previously been arrested on September 8, 2020 at an Antifa riot on four charges of interfering with a peace officer and was released on her own recognizance.
…
Video taken by Higby showed the woman getting in close proximity to Higby, yelling at the camera, ‘Stop filming children’ and holding up a fist before striking with her umbrella that read ‘f*ck ICE.’ Higby said that another protestor had brought her two young children to the protest, and when he confronted her, the woman with the umbrella, identified as Wilson, launched into the attack.
…”
[note: read linked article. The woman who attacked is not the one with the children. But evidently this criminally minded violent mentally ill far left winger attacker Joy Wilson could not stand to have a boy child so she transitioned him to a her at age 8 and now lives with her two daughters as a result.]
https://thepostmillennial.com/anti-ice-activist-attacks-journalist-cam-higby-during-portland-protest?utm_campaign=64470