By Chad Garland / The Associated Press / February 6, 2014
SALEM Getting caught with a little marijuana won’t prevent you from getting a concealed handgun license in Oregon. That is, if it happened in the state and after 1973.
Oregon law generally prohibits people with drug convictions from obtaining a permit to carry a concealed handgun. But it makes an exception for those with one minor pot conviction that occurred in Oregon after the state reduced the severity of possession charges four decades ago.
“Someone caught in another state with an identical amount of marijuana and convicted under that state’s laws could not be granted a license under the current law. It’s a quirk in the way the law is written, said Darrell Fuller, general manager of the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association. Oregon county sheriffs are responsible for issuing the concealed handgun licenses.
But Fuller said it doesn’t make sense to treat a conviction differently just because it happened in another state. In an attempt to address this “issue of fundamental fairness,” the sheriff’s association wrote a bill that would remove the barrier for people with out-of-state convictions seeking permission to carry a concealed handgun.
“We won’t discriminate against foreigners,” Fuller said. …