Groups seek to have pot reclassified during special session of Legislature.
An unlikely alliance of far-right conservatives and legal marijuana advocates is pushing to allow medical cannabis patients to own guns.
Not as unlikely as many would believe, while the ‘war on drugs’ and programs like D.A.R.E set up ludicrous exaggerations about what marijuana is (and that we would all be offered it, for free!) a growing majority among younger second amendment supports are also strongly in support of removing marijuana from the controlled substances list that stigmatizes medical and recreational users.
The federal government classifies marijuana as an illicit drug — on par with heroin, LSD and ecstasy — and prohibits anyone who uses an “unlawful” substance from purchasing a firearm.
The question is right there on the form, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana…” and given that alcohol is not so controlled or screened for, marijuana should receive an equal place. This affirms the rights of people who have committed no actual crimes.
Some gun-rights supporters and pro-legalization groups and legislators are lobbying during the special session to allow the Minnesota Department of Health to petition the federal government to exempt marijuana from its schedule I classification for patients on the medical program, meaning the government recognizes it has medicinal qualities.
As with most things political, things move gradually, marijuana has long needed to be removed from schedule I, it was put their by a power lobby (paper, of all things) in order to insure their market shares against an encroaching product. It was never the dangerous ‘devil’s lettuce’ of mind breaking substances that it was reported, nor was it a ‘gateway drug’ any more or less than prescriptions are. Prescriptions are arguably worse in many respects, but their benefits are acknowledged.
The one that keeps being quietly ignored, on the federal level, so that nobody actually needs to change a rule (because that would be work) is marijuana.
It is time that changed.
Minnesota is pushing for it.
If their effort is 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, a number that’s expected to expand three to four times over the next few years with the addition of the dried flower for adults.
“The registry is going to grow a lot,” said Rep. Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal, who has been advocating for a change in the classification. “All of those people will be denied the right to get a shotgun in the fall to go hunting.”
Your rights to not end at your medicine.