Carlsbad resident and veteran Karl Maydwell’s military career ended just 8 months after he signed up to serve his country in Vietnam.
“We walked into an ambush and when we walked into the ambush there is not many of my company that made it out of there I am one of many that got wounded” he says.
It took 36 surgical operations to replace and reconnect the 17 feet of Maydwell’s intestines that were shredded by enemy machine gunfire.
Maydwell says the psychological effects; his PTSD, has been much harder to deal with. To manage the pain, get to sleep and cope doctors prescribed Maydwell every pharmaceutical under the sun.
He says though the medications helped, they turned his life into a monotonous cycle of sleeping, waking up to eat, taking his medication then going back to sleep again. Until a friend introduced him to marijuana.
“The more I smoked with him the less important the pills became the more I smoke with him the more energy that I seem to have. I would be up longer- I would be ready to go do something ” he says.
Medicinal marijuana eventually became legal in Michigan where he was living at the time, before he moved to New Mexico four years ago.
Maydwell says using marijuana has allowed him to be more involved in his family, be a good grandfather, while still being able to manage his pain and cope with the flashbacks and trauma of fighting in Vietnam.
“There has been things in my military career that I am not very proud of there are things in my military career that I don’t want to remember” he says.
But proposed changes to the New Mexico Medicinal marijuana program could mean Maydwell and PTSD patients like him will have to relive their trauma in medical re-evaluations every single year just to continue treatment.
In the US veterans account for one fifth of all suicides. Maydwell says the department of health’s proposed changes could push even more veterans over the edge.
“PTSD is not a disease that is going to heal itself tomorrow-ok it is not something that is going to be over with next week – It not going to be something that is going to be over
"As long as the events took place and you were there to witness them you will have PTSD" he says.
"This repetition of every year to have to have your card renewed for a condition that is not going away” he says
New Mexico would not recognize Maydwell’s Michigan medicinal marijuana patient card when he arrived. He says going through the approval process to treat his PTSD here was traumatic enough the first time.
"I would be having anxiety attacks when I leave there, paranoia when I leave from up there" he says.
"when I go through a segment where I am remembering, I come out of it where I am breathing hard, I am sweating, nerves are shot - you could put milk in one hand and ice in the other- and I could make ice cream for you, just put the two cups together I can make ice cream for you. Because I am shaking to that degree” he says.
Elephant Butte Physician Dr Michael Stephens prescribes medicinal marijuana in New Mexico to patients suffering from a number of different conditions, including PTSD – he acknowledges that evaluations can be an ordeal for PTSD patients- but it’s necessary.
“If we are going to be treating we are going to be wanting to re assess the patient just like with any other disease that assessment process might be unpleasant it might even be dangerous” he says.
Stephens says there isn’t a cure for PTSD. And nor is there a specific medication to treat it. Still department of health guidelines ask doctors to exhaust every other form of treatment to treat the symptoms of PTSD - before offering medicinal cannabis available to a patient.
Maydwell says going through all those other medications damaged his immune system and was detrimental to his other health conditions.
“I smoke marijuana because- every thing that they have prescribed for me at this point for post traumatic stress disorder has affected and can affect other organs of the body I don’t want to end up with a kidney disorder or something wrong with my pancreas" he says.
But Dr Stephens says if abused or left unmonitored medicinal marijuana can have its own issues and side effects like paranoia, depression and psychosis.
“Medical cannabis really is not considered a first line or initial treatment currently under current practice for most of these conditions” he says.
Maydwell acknowledges that ultimately his psychiatrist and physicians know what is best for him and at the moment he says that is medicinal marijuana, without it he says he wouldn’t be able to manage his stress, flashbacks or paranoia.
“War is a traumatic experience, living day to day, I can’t say that it is like living every day with a noose around your neck because it is tighter than that” he says.
Maydwell says if the proposed changes are approve he hopes he won’t have to endure repeated in-depth medical evaluations that would force him to face his battlefield demons all over again.