And he asks me....."how do I answer this?"
What do you tell him?
I'll tell them to read the question and answer the way they see fit. I will not tell them to lie. Further, if a friend of mine that I know smokes asks me to transfer a firearm I will tell them that I can't in good conscience do that because I know that the fed's intent is to say use of marijuana is illegal. I will not take the chance of losing my FFL.
Just last week the ATF was here to go over my FFL application as I'd refiled to change from an LLC to a sole proprietorship. I had just received the update 4473 the day before and I asked about it. She simply said they'd changed the wording to explicitly state that marijuana use is still federally illegal regardless of state law. If anyone checks yes to that box they will be denied.
"if you loan a shotgun to your bro-in-law for a spring turkey hunt you must go find an FFL and call in a background check on them first..."
We have the same law here in Colorado now.