Pot Smokers Can Carry Guns While Sober, US Appeals Court Says

A law banning gun possession by unlawful users of a controlled substance doesn’t apply to someone who is sober at the time of the arrest, a federal appeals court said.

A conviction under the statute was overturned on Wednesday because there was no evidence Patrick Daniels Jr. was intoxicated at the time of his arrest, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in an opinion by Judge Jerry E. Smith. The law was unconstititional as applied to him because it isn’t consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation, the court said.

The court applied the US ...