Firearm ownership and CBD

[Bill in Oregon]

As a Curio and Relic FFL licensee, former concealed carry licensee (will update this) and a former NRA pistol instructor and RSO, I have been very religious about avoiding any use of hemp-derived products because of the federal government's continuing paranoia about cannabis in any form.
I recently moved from uptight Texas back to cannabis-chill New Mexico. Hanging with other senior citizens, if you are one you know that the subject of health issues and aches and pains is a prime topic of conversation. Almost all the elders I know here regularly use some form of cannabis. Some use products containing the "reefer madness" compound THC -- gummies, chocolate, actual plant, smoked -- in some proportion and others keep to the THC-free spectrum of salves, oils and tinctures. Virtually all claim significant relief from pain and much better sleep when using this stuff -- relief that exceeds that from prescription meds and humanity's old enemy/friend, alcohol.
As I haven't had five hours' unbroken sleep in years and live with serious and chronic back pain thanks to the four fusions and attendant arthritis, I listen to their experiences with great interest. I am still not willing to take anything that would conflict with federal law and jeopardize my firearms rights but I feel kind of stupid yielding to the feds' illogical interpretation when I believe I would benefit from some of this stuff. Anyone else struggling with this issue? I know many hunters, shooters and gun owners who simply ignore the federal proscriptions and go about their lives. I do not feel in any way threatened by them, nor do I believe they present any threat whatsoever to the public health and safety.
If anyone is uncomfortable responding on the open forum and you wish to PM me with your experience, your PMs will be kept confidential.
I know. Can of worms, but I greatly value the wisdom and experience of those on this forum.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Bill in Oregon]

Ray, my friend, I am not interested in getting high. Took care of that back during the Nixon Administration.
I AM interested in pain relief and better sleep without Ambien.

[stretch]

Man, that's a thorny issue for sure!

Depending on your age, temperment, point in life, etc., you could let the Curio and Relic license lapse, and
just buy any firearms privately. Problem solved. But if you can't/won't do that, things can get tricky.

It is asinine beyond my power to politely express it, that Big Gooberment is restricting mostly harmless naturopathic
pain remedies, yet continuing to allow Big Pharma to push their hideously expensive toxins under false pretenses.
Okay, that rant's over - for now.....

I guess one has to ask some questions in order to establish the risk vs. reward decision tree.

1. Is taking a CBD-containing but not THC-containing product illegal if one has a C&R license? One of the problems with asking the
authorities the question, is that you are now front and center on their target list!!!
2. What are the penalties if you are caught?
3. How likely are you to be caught?
4. How likely are you to have to pay those penalties if you are caught?
(Because you are a small fish, don't have access to influential rich people and lawyers, you'd make a GREAT
example to prosecute, and to scare the $^&T out of other firearms owners. So questions 2,3, and 4 are important!)
5. How hard is it to just very quietly research and take the CBD-infused stuff to improve your quality of life?
(Don't go to a doctor or anyone who keeps records, pay cash with no ID for your medicine, don't talk up either
you C&R license OR your CBD-infused meds with people.)

I know several folks who take the stuff for pain, own guns, buy guns, and shoot. They are VERY quiet about their
CBD use. You and they are easy pickin's for the Feds, so you and they most definitely have to be careful.
Don't lie to a Federal agent - that's a Federal felony - but don't admit to CBD use in writing or to anyone
you don't know really, really well. Don't grow anything that will require you to be on a State Registry of any sort.

The Feds have admitted, in writing, in the Washington Post, that they DO NOT prosecute false statements on the
4473 form in something like 99.97% of the cases they know about. If you are very quiet about your CBD use, and
don't admit to it on the 4473 Form, you are probably fine.

YMMV.

-Stretch

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Stretch. I am unsure if extracts from the industrial hemp lawfully grown for fiber are regarded as distinct from those derived from the cannabis grown for intoxicant purposes by our gummint.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[ywaltzucanrknrl]

All the hemp rope I buy is from Manilla. I can't find American hemp rope, so I don't think much if any hemp is grown in the US for rope---other uses I don't know. But hemp has very little THC.

[AJMD429]

.
From what I see with patients exploring the boundaries of CBD, Hemp Oil, and Marijuana (each is unique and treated differently from a legal standpoint), the laws are capricious, illogical, and not consistently interpreted or enforced.

More evidence supporting the original intent of our government along 'libertarian' lines - where the only laws affecting what you do (or eat or drink or smoke) would be tort law protecting others from harm you do to them (independent of whether or not you were using a 'substance', or intoxicated on it). The 'war on drugs' has been just about as successful as the 'war on poverty' and the 'war on gun violence'... Mostly those 'wars' just are a way to capture an inelastic demand or chronic problem, and enable the government or their cronies to make a profit off it.

So.... be careful of the overzealous and self-righteous enforcers of the law. They mean no harm, but WILL harm innocents who violate even a 'technicality'.

CBD is basically a collection of SOME alkaloids from the marijuana or hemp plant, that excludes the 'fun' components (mostly 'THC') - it was designed and marketed to provide something to help pain, seizures, etc., that doesn't usually show positive even on the old and inaccurate drug screens.

Hemp Oil has more ingredients (so may work better than CBD for some people), but the older drug tests would mistake it for marijuana. Supposedly the good drug screens don't show positive for the good quality Hemp Oil products.

'Edibles' and other things that have actual THC, including plain marijuana, are going to show up on drug screens for THC, because they ARE THC. For some people though, only the THC works, so they are in a real bind.

Personally, I think the law ought to prohibit 'public intoxication', regardless of the intoxicant. If you want to stay home and get blitzed, do your thing, but it is just as much a danger to the public if you're intoxicated on legal Jack Daniels as it is if you're intoxicated on Oxycodone or Fentanyl or LSD. The only thing that drug prohibition has accomplished is entrenched and funded an organized crime network, and enabled a huge government bureaucracy and parasitic private corporations to 'fight the drug war', and provided an excuse for civil rights violations (including 'gun control').

[ywaltzucanrknrl]

So, I tried to post a response and somehow it was deleted.
But having gone through several stints of chemo over the last 25 years and looking at the side effects of the drugs I was prescribed---not the chemo as it's poison, but the other drugs prescribed to cancer patients to deal with the chemo, I would say weed is likely a lot less harmful and maybe more effective in treating the symptoms of the chemo.

The Oncologists I had were in a state where medical weed was legal. My nurses and Dr's in that state suggested weed to deal with the chemo effects---which were nausea, pain, lack of appetite and lack of sleep. I was prescribed some pretty bad drugs----just read the warning label. And one Oncologist said the drugs prescribed by my previous Oncologist were known to "promote tumor growth".

I live in a state where weed is illegal, period, no medical exception. The Dr's gave me an Rx for Marinol, which is synthetic weed, but I could never keep it down---it was in capsule form.

I'm certain weed is the lesser evil---and yes I was given an Rx for sleeping aids similar to what you are using----bad stuff I think.

Next time around I won't go for all the Rx stuff.

I don't have any answer to your question about the gun laws, I think it's a complex issue. Questions come up like are you addicted? Are you using the drug under the recommendation of a Dr.? Do you have a Rx. I don't have an answer other than to say it's a risk.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks fellas.

[samsi]

All the hemp rope I buy is from Manilla. I can't find American hemp rope, so I don't think much if any hemp is grown in the US for rope---other uses I don't know. But hemp has very little THC.

I was told, and it seems plausible, that domestic hemp cultivation got legislatively lumped in with marijuana at the behest of the cotton lobby back before most of us were born. This info from an acquaintance who hunted pheasant on an old, long defunct hemp farm property

[Bill in Oregon]

Samsi, I would not be surprised. Hemp is currently being grown for fiber in several states, I believe. I’d love to have several yards of hemp canvas for a tent and other projects. I think Turkeyfoot Traders may sell it, but it may be sourced from Canada or Romania.

[Rockrat]

Have you tried Melatonin to help you sleep? 3-5 mg.

[ywaltzucanrknrl]

Not answering for Bill, but the Dr. recommended Melatonin. I could fall asleep on it very easy, but I was awake not long after. After that they started me on the Rx for sleeping and then things started to get weird---wide awake dreams, getting out of bed asleep and then waking after I wandered around the house. I also started to get anxious and was easily irritated. I quit it shortly after that.

I have heard Melatonin combined with zinc and magnesium works for some folks, I've never tried it.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I won’t have anything to do with the devil’s lettuce.

I put far too many people in jail over this and I’ve never seen anything good come of it.

[Ysabel Kid]

Stay away from Ambein at all costs. After my back surgery I was off the pain medication within the week. Took me 3 months to ease myself off the sleep aid.

I do take melatonin every night. Three 5mg chewables. Just helps me fall asleep, with no ill side effects.

Of course, at my age, now I am up a couple-few times a night to go to the bathroom. So staying asleep is not in the card.

[Sarge]

I won’t have anything to do with the devil’s lettuce.

I put far too many people in jail over this and I’ve never seen anything good come of it.

Same here. I am way beyond caring if other adults partake of it, but not around me. I can't stand the smell of it.

[rossim92]

All the hemp rope I buy is from Manilla. I can't find American hemp rope, so I don't think much if any hemp is grown in the US for rope---other uses I don't know. But hemp has very little THC.

you can buy cbd that is thc free, at least you can in md. read the ingredients or google it to find it. you just have to be 18 to buy it here.. thc is legal here on a state level, for now. just not legal for certain jobs, especially on the federal level that require urine tests, like a truck driver with a cdl, but not on a dot certificate. i used to be a rollback driver with a dot cert. no drug tests needed .

[vancelw]

I do take melatonin every night. Three 5mg chewables. Just helps me fall asleep, with no ill side effects.

I used to take a 10mg slow release (when I worked night shift) and it gave me wild, vivid, technicolor dreams. Woke up tired from traveling the world all night.

Now I just turn the fan on

[Scott Tschirhart]

I do take melatonin every night. Three 5mg chewables. Just helps me fall asleep, with no ill side effects.

I used to take a 10mg slow release (when I worked night shift) and it gave me wild, vivid, technicolor dreams. Woke up tired from traveling the world all night.

Now I just turn the fan on

I tried Ambien more than 20 years ago. Scared the hell out of me. Never again!!!

[Rockrat]

when I take melatonin, it is usually 2.5-3 mg. at the most