Medical marijuana user sparks joint in Parliament

Samuel Mellace said he was trying to call attention to unfair medical marijuana rules.

Mellace stood in the gallery of the House of Commons and lit up a joint on Monday afternoon, before a security guard asked him to put it out and leave. Mellace did so without incident, but told reporters that Canada needs to change the laws that govern the medical use of marijuana. It’s currently illegal to process marijuana leaves into any other form, which Mellace said discriminates against people like his wife, who has lung cancer and can’t smoke anything. He also said Health Canada needs to cut down on the time it takes to renew medical marijuana licences. There’s currently a large backlog in licence approvals because of a sharp increase in the number of applications.