Medical marijuana patients in Minnesota seek gun rights

ST. PAUL, Minn. – 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 guns as the law now stands because the federal government classifies marijuana as an illicit drug, similar to heroin.

Gun-rights supporters and pro-legalization groups are lobbying for Minnesota to petition for an exemption. If they succeed 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.