Minnesota medical marijuana patients may be happy to get their cannabis but they are not happy that they can’t get gun rights too.
Over 35,000 patients in Minnesota’s program can’t own guns as the law now stands because the federal government classifies marijuana as an illicit drug.
The law prohibits anyone who uses an “unlawful” substance from purchasing a firearm.
Gun-rights supporters and pro-legalization groups and legislators are now lobbying during the special session to allow the Minnesota Department of Health to petition the federal government for an exemption.
The change is being debated as part of Minnesota’s public safety and health and human services budget bills.
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported this week that if they are successful, Minnesota would be the first of 36 states that allow medical marijuana in some form to appeal directly to the federal government on behalf of its enrollees.
“The registry is going to grow a lot,” said Rep. Jeremy Munson, a Republican from Lake Crystal, who has been advocating for the change. “All of those people will be denied the right to get a shotgun in the fall to go hunting.”
Republican Rep. Rod Hamilton, of Mountain Lake, stated, “In the eyes of the federal government, we’re all felons, and it’s just tragic.”
“Do I feel like I’ve missed out? Absolutely I do. My doctors think this would provide me some relief,” Hamilton said. “I am prioritizing, right, wrong or otherwise, my Second Amendment rights over using, in the eyes of Minnesota, a lawful medical product.”
