PARLIAMENT PUFFER WANTS WEED REFORM

The Abbotsford man who lit a joint in Parliament to protest Health
Canada regulations around medical marijuana wants to plead his case
before a judge.

Samuel Mellace garnered national attention after smoking pot in the
public gallery of the House of Commons in Ottawa during question
period on Oct. 4.

"The only way to get attention was to do what I did," Mellace
said.

The next step is to head to federal court, he said.

"Total litigation against the government," Mellace said. "We're going
to try and ask the courts to intervene and possibly take over the
program from Health Canada because it is damaging people."

Mellace said public outcry in his favour is mounting, and he has
received positive feedback from both provincial and federal
politicians as well.

"I've had e-mail from Africa, England, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Australia, New Zealand, the States, [support] has been overwhelming
actually," he said.

Mellace inhaled a few tokes before he was asked to leave the gallery
by a security guard, and he told reporters at a press conference
following the incident that he saw nothing wrong with what he did.

He is hoping to use the momentum gained from the incident to gain
support for amending changes to existing Health Canada rules that
require licensed medical marijuana users to inhale pot for treatment
of medical conditions. Users should be able to ingest it in food, or
apply it topically in creams, he said.

Mellace's wife has lung cancer and inhaling marijuana doesn't work for
her, so he makes smoothies with marijuana in them.

But making those smoothies goes against medical marijuana regulations,
which states the by-products are controlled substances under federal
drug laws. Mellace's company, New Age Medical Solutions, uses
marijuana extracts in things like hand lotion and butter, which he
said is used in foods like spaghetti sauce or soups.

"Everybody knows [we] promote a non-smoking use of marijuana . . .
[but] what you have is Harper insisting that people smoke it," Mellace
said.

"We've got arthritic hand cream that works with the use of THC
(Tetrahydrocannabinol) and we have an after-chemo[therapy] drink that
works without having to take OxyContin or the opiate narcotics that
are needed to soothe some people's pain."

It's time for a common sense wake-up call for the federal government,
he said.

"Definitely," Mellace said.

"I smoked it [at the Commons], would it have been different if I had a
cookie with me?"