Quote:
Originally posted by Aquila Blanca
Present tense is present tense. There is no "implied" about it. "Is" means "right now, at this moment in time."
ANY amount of time back before right-now-this-very-minute would be past tense, and the past tense of "is" is "was."
That said, I don't think the question means, "Are you smoking a joint while answering this question?" It means, "Are you NOW a regular user?" If you smoked a joint a day or two or three ago and you know you'll probably smoke another joint tonight or tomorrow night ... yeah, you ARE an unlawful user. On the other hand, if you smoked your last joint a month ago and decided that was going to be your last one ... you ARE not an unlawful user. You WERE an unlawful user, but today you are not any kind of user.
Words have meanings. That's why we use them. Even the courts defer to standard dictionaries for the definitions of words that are not explicitly defined in the law at question.
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That's the problem is that you have to interpret what time frame we are talking about.That's your interpretation but you and I can reasonably have different interpretations.
If present tense means present tense then the use would have to be at the time of possession of the firearm to violate the law.
How many days do you have to go without using before you're not an unlawful user anymore?
A simple definition defining the term "Is an unlawful user" would be helpful. Something like:
"Is an unlawful user" is defined as a person who has unlawfully used a controlled substance within the last X days.