ST PAUL, Minn. — Editor's note: The video above originally aired on May 14, 2021.
Staunch conservatives and advocates of legal marijuana have formed an unlikely alliance in Minnesota to pressure the Legislature to allow medical cannabis patients to own guns.
The more than 35,000 patients in Minnesota’s program can’t own a firearm as the law now stands because the federal government classifies marijuana as a schedule I substance or illicit drug, on par with heroin.
Gun-rights supporters and pro-legalization groups are lobbying for Minnesota to petition for an exemption.
"The registry is going to grow a lot," Rep. Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal, told the Star Tribune. "All of those people will be denied the right to get a shotgun in the fall to go hunting."
If they succeed, the Star Tribune reports, 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 enrollees.
Some legislators support the option of writing a state law reclassifying marijuana as a schedule II substance.