It can be difficult for healthy people to understand the added strain and effort it takes to cope with traditional celebrations, as well as less than favorable weather. I can't think of anyway to explain it, but I suspect we all know that feeling, not matter if it is occasional or regular. It is a time when depression can take over and effect our well-being. Catastrophic illness is only understandable by living it. No explanation seems quite fit to describe my experience. I, and I expect others, feel more isolated during this time of year. Weather, holiday cheer and shorter days combine to make it harder to stay positive.

As hard as it may be, keep your attention on those things that are uplifting. Take the time to notice the snow, the clouds, the traditional foods and of course family. These are joys the illness cannot take from us. Each person is in charge of what they see, and taking the time to notice the beauty and joy that life still offers. This time of year can be a time to reconnect to those pleasure of home and hearth. You can be defined by your illness, or you can suck the marrow from the bones of life and refuse to be suffering. Of course, this is not always possible. What is important is to continue the journey to joy. Each cloud does have a silver lining, and while it's not always to see, it is always worth pursuing.

This is merely a sample of diseases approved for medical cannabis use that leave physical signs. Many of us also have invisible illnesses, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Chronic Pain, Crohn's Disease or Peripheral Neuropathy. Additionally, advances in treatment have restored the veneer of health to Hepatitis C and HIV sufferers, without alleviating the underlying symptoms, not to mention the side effects of the treatment itself. Even our loved ones and close associates, unable to truly understand the experience, unintentionally offer slights that wound and take away some of our pride and our justification to access treatment, or even to complain. It would seem as patients, we have a dual experience of exclusion from normality, beyond our diagnosis alone: suffer the unintentional slights offered to those with invisible disabilities, and/or suffer the looks, and worse, the pity of those who can see the signs of illness. What we don't seem to have the chance to do, is take care of ourselves without the added burden of judgments, assessments and proclamations of those who, through no fault of their own, are in no position to understand the plight of the patient.

Enter the New Mexico Department of Health and the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Caregiver Act. At least, someone has heard us, understood our pain and given us legal access to an otherwise benign plant that has medicinal properties that rival some of the best of Western Medicine. At last, we can stop behaving like criminals, and have an easy, open and up front purchase of medication, at least now that it's legal in the State, or can we?

At first, it looked as if the State were going to get directly involved in production and distribution of medical cannabis. The flaw in this thinking became somewhat obvious, that the State of New Mexico would become a “drug dealer," dispensing drugs with no more medical use than LSD or heroin, though the Federal Government's own research to date seems to disprove this “fact”. I thoroughly believe State employees need to be kept safe from prosecution while doing the their job as we wait for the Federal Government to come around. The fact remains that necessary compromises and the best efforts of all involved have left us with the medical equivalent of "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" for patients. What have we in fact won if we are still made to feel and act like criminals? (There is currently a Bill in the House of Congress, HR 2835, The Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act to turn Medical Marijuana access control to the States. Keep your fingers crossed.)

NewMexiCann Natural Medicine hopes to become one of those businesses that allows a patient a modicum of normalcy in accessing legal medication. With luck, there will be more providers and New Mexicans can finally access medication in the open, without fear or shame.

Until then, we would like you to become a clearinghouse for information, assistance and patient community building in New Mexico. We hope you like our site and make use of it freely. Comment, complain, disagree and otherwise express yourself in our message board. Access our reference and link pages, and of course, comment on anything you read here in our monthly update.

Joseph J. Keenan, BS, MA
Communications Director
NewMexiCann Natural Medicine