CARE AND COMPASSION

The struggle for legal medical cannabis has been ongoing across the country, and the patients and caregivers are often on the front lines of this struggle, drafting bills, pushing policy and making change, despite their conditions and the other demands of their daily lives. A great example of that is the work done by the women of New Approach South Dakota and South Dakota Coalition for Compassion.

Both of these organizations were born from the desire to make change, but they both serve very different purposes. Unlike many advocacy groups that roll all issues into one, this group clearly delegates care and patient issues to the Coalition for Compassion, and legal issues to New Approach South Dakota . This way, families and patients aren’t getting caught in the crossfire of legal proceedings when they are already struggling to access health care and get the help they need.

“The family coalition was founded three years ago,” explained Melissa Mentele, Director of New Approach South Dakota. “We do cannabis education and what we started out to do was teach people with really bad illnesses how they can swap their medication either to use cannabis oil, to vaporize, or to use edibles. We just wanted to teach people that there is a better option out there. We do have a lot of adult patients, but we have a few kid patients, so we educate them on how THC and CBD work. We do a lot of referrals with the coalition—we work with several caregivers in Colorado and send families back and forth. If we have a family with a terminal illness we set them up in Colorado—a lot of it is kind of underground stuff because we live in such an underground state.

“We live with some of the worst laws in America,” she added, explaining why New Approach South Dakota and South Dakota Coalition for Compassion have to be so careful when it comes to the work they do. “You can get charged with possession very easily—we fought it for years in the legislature and they haven’t removed it or wiggled on it at all. They have no desire to make any cannabis reform in our state.”

Despite this overwhelmingly negative climate, Mentele and her group are nowhere near giving up, and refuse to rest when it comes to making change and trying to get laws passed in their state.

“We are taking our ballot initiative [for medical cannabis] to court right now because they rejected us,” Mentele explained. “The notary had an error where she just put the month and year on the initiative so we are trying to get it overturned and put it on the 2016 ballot. We will get that passed, then start working on other things. We are going to advocate again up here in January—even a decriminalization would help. It’s just frustrating because our newspaper has a real time Facebook page where they put out police scanners and there are marijuana calls every day; these people are going to jail, but DUI users don’t go to court until the 3rd or 4th time. The [local Native American] tribes are already set up to grow here, and our goal is to work with them and to provide medicine for people statewide, but also provide some kind of income for the tribes and bring them out of poverty. Education, awareness, advocating – we are not going to stop until there is a full medical bill.”

Doing all of this sounds like a full-time job, but the women of New Approach South Dakota and South Dakota Coalition for Compassion are all mothers, full-time employees or advocates elsewhere. Most also have serious medical conditions that they treat with cannabis. They all have lives to live, but find time to fit cannabis reform into their busy schedules. The coalitions originally came about because another group in the state that was male-run was sloppy and showed a lazy, “stoner” aesthetic whenever they went to lobby for change, according to Mentele. She and her colleagues saw a need for a more put-together and professional group to jump in and take over.

“So many women have balance,” she explained. “Men can really dedicate themselves to a cause and allow the rest of our life to fall apart—women aren’t like that; we can do that; we can balance our lives; we can go out in the cannabis community, and then come home and be moms and have families. Women are always given the short end of the stick, and women are the ones who have the innovative ideas—something as simple as a product line, whether it is cannabis facials, massages, or a food line that doesn’t appeal to children. We have such a different perspective on things, and I think cannabis women are really great jugglers. You look at women who are jugglers, like Jane West [of Women Grow, Denver]—they are doing a great job of it.”

New Approach South Dakota and South Dakota Coalition for Compassion are active in their community every day, helping patients gain access and fighting the stigma against medical cannabis. The rapid changes in cannabis reform that this nation is seeing are not due only to politicians in D.C. or high-level cannabis business executives, but also to the patients who so bravely advocate for cannabis until their voices are heard.