ABBOTSFORD MAN LIGHTS JOINT IN HOUSE OF COMMONS

A medical marijuana user lit up a joint in the House of Commons Monday
to draw attention to what he calls unfair rules set by Health Canada.

Abbotsford's Samuel Mellace is a licensed pot user under the federal
government's medical marijuana program. He started smoking a joint
Monday afternoon while in the public gallery of the House of Commons
as the daily question period came to an end. Mellace took a few drags
on the joint before a security guard asked him to put it out and leave
the gallery, which he did without incident.

At a news conference on Parliament Hill a short time later, Mellace
said he didn't think it was wrong for him to take his medication in
the House of Commons.

His complaints about the government's medical marijuana program are
twofold: delays in processing applications for licences and
restrictions on how medical marijuana can be used.

Mellace wants licensed users to be able to use their legal marijuana
in creams or food, something that is prohibited by Health Canada's
regulations.

"Smoking marijuana is not the only way," Mellace said. "There's other
methods, there's people that cannot smoke it."

His wife is one of those people, he said; she has lung cancer and
can't inhale her marijuana medication. Mellace's company, New Age
Medical Solutions, makes products that contain marijuana extracts,
including a hand lotion and a butter that can be used in baking and
cooking.

The smoothies Mellace makes for his wife with the marijuana extracts
are technically illegal. Health Canada rules stipulate that licensed
users can only possess dried marijuana for medical purposes and that
it cannot be processed into another substance. Doing so contravenes
the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations and means the byproducts are
controlled substances under federal drug laws.

"Any activities that fall outside of the MMAR is an enforcement issue
and falls under the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies," Health
Canada said in an emailed response to questions from Postmedia.

Health Canada does acknowledge there is a backlog in processing
applications for licenses, which Mellace and other users at Monday's
news conference said is punishing patients.

If their licence expires before it is renewed, they say they risk
either being caught and charged with drug offences or living in pain
while they wait for a new licence, sometimes for months.

"Health Canada is currently experiencing a temporary delay in
processing applications, due to a sharp rise in the number of
applications received in recent months,"the department said. It aims
to process applications within eight to 10 weeks and says it has
implemented a strategy to improve waiting times that is already working.