Hello,

We are a group of New Mexico Complementary and Alternative health care practitioners, educators, administrators and general public who are working to get a bill passed in New Mexico that will:

Protect people's access to traditional, cultural, complementary and alternative health care therapies and
Protect the practitioner's right to practice traditional, cultural, complementary and alternative health care therapies.
This is NOT a bill that will create licensing and regulation. It will change the law in New Mexico so that unlicensed alternative health care practitioners will not be practicing unlawfully as long as they practice under the terms of the legislation. Similar bills have been passed in Minnesota, California and several other states.

The issue

People's access to and the practitioner's right to practice traditional, cultural, complementary and alternative health care therapies are not currently protected by law. New Mexico Senate Memorial 20 in 2006 and NM Senate Memorial 48 in 2007 were passed to look into this situation. The proposed bill is constructed in a way which allows traditional and alternative unlicensed practitioners in New Mexico to continue to practice their healing traditions, as long as they stay within certain guidelines, which are laid out in the current revised language of the bill. If you are an alternative practitioner in NM, then I am certain you would like to be able to continue to provide your services to the public, while avoiding unlawful practice.

Who we are

The "New Mexico Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Project", http://www.nmcaamp.org in northern New Mexico, has been working with another group of people in southern part of our state "Citizens for the Protection of Alternative Health Care" , http://www.desertbloomherbs.com/C-PAHC/index.html for the past two years.
Together, we have been working on drafting a bill and getting it passed at the yearly New Mexico Legislative sessions. Although the bill had wide support in 2007, the legislative session ended before the bill came up for a vote in the Senate.
This year, we have reworked the bill's language and intend to submit the revised bill and begin the process of asking our state Congressmen and Senators to sponsor or support this legislation in the upcoming session in January 2009.

Legislation

We have been working with people at several agencies in Santa Fe to win widespread support for this revised bill.
You can see a copy of the current bill text by clicking on either of the the webpage links listed below.

Proposed New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Bill

http://www.desertbloomherbs/C-PAHC/NM.Althealthpract.html,

and

http://www.nmcaamp.org
You can also see the New Mexico Senate Memorials, the Minnesota and California bills on the NMCAAMP website.

Action

We'd like you to think about this: If you value and enjoy the ability you currently have, to go into your local herb stores, or visit local alternative practitioners, to obtain information and health care, or if you use any form of alternative therapy which is currently not licensed within New Mexico, then you probably would like to do whatever you could to make certain that these services continue to remain available to you.
Visit the site links above, in order to familiarize yourselves with the issue at hand.
We are asking your support (asking you to actually write a letter or make a phone call... at least one... or as many as you have time to make or send).
A copy of this letter could be included with a letter of introduction, and sent out to people you know: alternative practitioners, co-ops, health food stores, etc. in the state, with a request for them to print it and distribute it to their customers.
After reading over the materials in the links above, we are asking you to write a letter and send it to your local state elected officials describing why access to alternative practitioners and their practices is important to you. (reasons could include such things as: "I can't afford regular health care"... or, "I do not wish to use standard practice medicine to maintain my health", or " I want to preserve and protect these Traditional forms of medicine, which are indigenous to our region, and have been used for hundreds of years by regional practitioners", or " The systems of Traditional Medicine practices found here in the Southwest are a part of what is truly traditional in our region, and are a unique part of the culture and flavor of New Mexico, that needs protection, and which I feel needs to be preserved." Or... whatever else you'd like to say in support of the alternative health care practices in our state.
If you don't know who to contact, you can find out who your local Congressmen and Senators are and how to contact them, at this New Mexico State government site: http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/legislatorsearch.asp
The time left before the January 2009 Legislative session begins is growing short. Therefore, together, we need to convince as many of our state representatives as possible, that their support for this bill is needed, is desired by the public at large, and will be appreciated.
We need the help of everyone who would like to protect traditional, cultural, complementary and alternative health care therapies. If you have any questions about this bill or about ways in which you can add your help to this effort, please contact us.
The members of both the organizations below want to thank you for your participation and support as we continue working to protect these healing practices within our beautiful and diverse state, New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment.

Brought to you by:

Citizens for the Protection of Alternative Health Care http://www.desertbloomherbs.com/C-PAHC/index.html

AND
New Mexico Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Project www.nmcaamp.org