Man Wheeling Way To White House Hopes To Arrive By July 4

SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) - A man with cerebral palsy is on a mission to make it to the White House by Independence Day.

The kicker, though: he's traveling in an electric wheelchair.

Curtis Kile has been bound to the chair his whole life and wants to speak at the human rights protest taking place on July 4 over in Washington, D.C.

He hopes to meet with representatives of the Obama administration, speaking up for the legalization of marijuana for the sake of medical treatment.

Kile reached out to the White House hoping to plan a meeting when he arrives but he has not heard back.

Kile left his home in Taylor on Friday, June 14,  and has been using side roads and other surface streets to make the excursion.

The journey has not been easy for Kile and with the heat surfacing he has faced some challenges.

"The last few days have been tough on my body," Kile said.  "I average about 30 miles per day but in this heat I'm barely able to make 23 miles a day."

Kile will be crossing into Maryland from Pennsylvania either Thursday or Friday.

He's re-started a group that he credits his father for beginning in the 1980s called United Marijuana Smokers of Michigan.

"I am going to be setting up United Marijuana Smokers of America," Kile said.  "I intend to get a national movement going so it can just be legalized.  We have to make it readily available to those who cannot afford it."

Kile expressed his concern for people who have succumbed to terminal illness which have included family members of his own.

"I lost my father and sister to cancer, 12 days apart, in 2011," Kile said.  "There are people dying of cancer every day that don't need to."

"If doctors everywhere had access to marijuana there would be more cancer cures discovered and less suffering," Kile added.

For more information on UMSOM visit their website.