Making a True ND Illegal?

As I mentioned in the article on "The Licensing Issue," North Carolina is not the only state in which the "battle is raging" for the rights of Traditional Naturopaths to exist.  The purveyors of false Naturopathy (the use of drugs and surgery as part of their "practice") have been busy in other states as well!  Here is a recent Whitman News Brief E-mail on the situation in California:

CALIFORNIA MAY BETRAY THE NATURAL HEALTH MOVEMENT
(Quoted from a recent Whitman News Brief E-mail)

Opinion by Raj Pal, Ph.D., President, Naturopathic Medical Association of California

"On July 1, 2003, the California State Assembly's Business & Professions Committee unanimously voted in favor of SB 907, to license certain Naturopaths. It is called a "health freedom bill'. Well, although the title sounds promising, this bill has many terrible intended and possibly unintended consequences.

Instead of helping the natural health movement, SB 907 betrays the natural health movement by:

1. Only licensing Naturopathic doctors who graduated from schools (all of which are outside of California) that consider prescription medications and surgery as appropriate Naturopathic therapy.

2. Making it a criminal act for the thousands of California naturopathic doctors who went to other schools to continue to call themselves Naturopathic doctors. SB 907 costs California residents' jobs.

3. Discriminates against doctors of Naturopathy who have more Naturopathic training if they did not go to schools that teach drugs as Naturopathy.

4. Puts licensed Naturopathic doctors under the supervision of medical doctors in the same capacity as a nurse practitioner for prescribing. Naturopathic doctors have always been independent of medical supervision, as Naturopaths have major philosophical disagreement with many medical modalities.

5. Gives medical doctors and pharmacists the power to control the 'Naturopathic formulary.'

6. Will increase California's current budget problem by making the State ultimately responsible to pay for certain Naturopathic services that it is currently not doing. It will also hurt the income of tax paying California Naturopathic doctors, who will then pay less California taxes. Thus, SB 907 will increase overall taxes and/or result in cuts of State services.

7. Betrays the acknowledged founder of American Naturopathy, Dr. Benedict Lust, because SB 907 gives restricted prescription and limited surgery rights (SB907, 16 and 17). Dr. Lust told California naturopaths, 'Remember: Naturopaths are Doctors-minus Materia Medica and Surgery.' The materia medica Dr. Lust was referring to was for prescription drugs.  Under SB 907 the only Naturopathic doctors will be those who believe naturopaths prescribe drugs and perform surgeries. SB 907 sets up a committee that can ultimately be used to slowly remove herbs "that have biological activity" (JAMA, 3/26/03) from the general marketplace (such as health food stores and the internet). This "health freedom bill" fits in well with AMA plans to take control over herbs and dietary supplements-no thinking person wants that.

Even the Sacramento Bee reported, 'And, as with all medical turf battles, whether SB 907 lives or dies has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with whether it enhances or imperils the health of Californians' (Walters, Dan. Naturopathic Bill Moves With Push From Movie Tycoon. Sacramento Bee. June 30, 2003).

Click HERE for a detailed article written by former CSNMA President Robert Thiel, Ph.D., N.H.D., providing more reasons to dread SB 907.

Please write to Governor Davis, State Capital, Sacramento, CA 95814, or fax him at (916) 445-4633 today and tell him not to sign this terrible bill."