Newsletters > Spring 1997 > Against Naturopathic Licensure, by Nancy Hone

You may notice that the “against naturopathic licensure” is longer than the “for licensure.” This is because they have not told you the whole story.

In the dictionary, naturopathy means to help people with their health naturally. It comes from the Latin -- natura, from nature; and the Greek -- pathos, suffering. It is a system of therapy which avoids drugs in favor of such physical agencies as sunshine, air, water, exercise, etc. Although the term naturopathy was originally associated with the movement led by Benedict Lust. The art can be traced back through Germany into Greece to Hippocrates and beyond, nurtured along and kept alive by individuals of all levels of education. Although Benedict Lust began a naturopathic school, he himself was not educated in this manner and look what he did! There are many naturopathic doctors in Minnesota who studied by various means. Some have studied, for example, with the Clayton School of Naturopathy, a 50-year-old correspondence school. These NDs provide natural health access to many outstate areas as well as metropolitan areas often from a broader perspective than the 4-year naturopathic medical school graduates. The opposition refers to these NDs as “mail order” NDs. Today, many legitimate colleges are offering 4-year college degrees over the Internet. This is called “modern.” Correspondence schools are called “mail order.” All of the naturopaths and natural health practitioners I know have a passion for continuing their education, crazy to learn more information about natural therapies and wanting to continue to learn all of their lives. Even those providers practicing at lesser educated levels are not hurting people. Natural health care is safe by definition.

The history of licensure is to protect the public. The people are not asking to be protected from all of the bad NDs out there. In addition there are fraud laws out there in place to protect people. There are many bad professionals that are licensed. Allopathic medical doctors are licensed because they are using toxic and dangerous pharmaceuticals that kill people. They need regulation. They are licensed and regulated and they are still free to reign over us as our health care gods. This is the group that the 4-year naturopaths have agreed to be licensed under, the Board of Medical Practice.

The philosophical foundations - physical and biological approaches among practitioners of naturopathy and the chemical, pharmacological toxicological principles among orthodox allopathic physicians, are incapable of conciliation in this matter. This is oil and water. They do not mix.

Yes, it is too expensive to have their own naturopathic board, but to go UNDER THE MEDICAL BOARD!!! Remember the doctors would still be in charge, and, at any time, changes in the law could be much in their control. There is a recent amendment in the naturopathic licensure bill which states that the Medical Board shall convene a task force, facilitated by an external contract mediator, to study the scope of practice of naturopathic medicine to determine which of the activities outlined in the bill should be licensed. It proceeds to list homeopathy, herbology, and many other natural health therapies. Do you want the Medical Board to be ultimately deciding who can do these things? THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS AMENDMENT FOR ALL OF NATURAL HEALTH.

You have to ask yourself why is the author of this bill in the Senate, Senator Linda Berglin, authoring this bill? She has a long history of supporting laws that benefit allopathic medicine. She is known to support big HMO legislation. Is she a friend of natural health? Lobbyists from the insurance industry have told us that it is supporting this licensure bill because the overall plan by the big HMOs is to put a lot of the 4-year NDs in place, raise their premiums saying that this is an extra cost to have NDs on board, even though costs would go down by keeping people well. We were told that the insurance companies would move to have the naturopaths make herbs and vitamins by prescription. This would be a major move for the pharmaceutical industry to make all herbs and vitamins prescription products, eventually on an international level. As most of you know, this process has begun in other countries as well as here. Is there a hidden agenda here? You decide!

This bill is being pursued by only 6 NDs whose lobbyists and authors of the bill continuously have stated to the Attorney General and legislators, personally and in Senate hearings, that licensing the 4-year NDs is the only safe way have natural health care in Minnesota. And if licensure is not passed, this will open the doors to hordes of uneducated and possibly dangerous NDs. This offends the entire natural health community.

This bill serves 6, count them, 6 naturopaths. The rest of the naturopaths will be closed out. The grandfathering clause states that residents of the state who are of legal majority and who have held themselves out as naturopaths or doctors of naturopathic medicine in the state prior to July 1, 1993 (where did they get this date? out of the air?) may be issued a transitional license renewable annually until June 30, 2003 if they: (1) derive a majority of their earned income from the practice of naturopathic medicine in Minnesota as documented on federal tax returns prior to 1993, and (2) pass the national naturopathic board exam on or before June 30. 2003, among other requirements. This shuts many NDs out because many work part time due to low economic levels of individuals in their communities to be able to afford their work, or family commitments. In addition, you are only allowed to take the exam if you are graduates of one of the three 4-year naturopathic medical colleges. The exam is not available to others. For those non 4-year NDs to spend $100,000 (the cost of 4 years at these schools) go all the way to the west coast, leaving families and incomes behind when they are already safely helping thousands of Minnesotans, is not feasible. Even if they were to go, undergraduate science courses taken prior to 6 years of entering their schools do not count for some odd reason, and you have to take all of your sciences on an undergraduate level all over again. How offensive! It is like saying to the 4-year ND that to be really accepted by the medical community they should go back to medical school for 4 years and be a medical naturopathic doctor or go back to acupuncture school to pass their rigorous exam before they use acupuncture in their practices. It is the same thing.

In defining the practice of naturopathy in this bill, there is a section that states that: “nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit or restrict persons not licensed by this chapter from the practice of natural medicine such as the use of nutritional supplements, herbs, foods, homeopathic preparations, and such physical forms such as heat, cold, water, and light so long as these modalities are not performed in a manner that constitutes the practice of Naturopathic Medicine.” If you were a legislator, would you not ask at this point “Why define and license these people if everyone else it?”

In addition, in the 2 states that Bob Timberlake, the 4-year NDs lobbyist, successfully helped get licensing passed, Vermont and Maine, at the very last minute before the bill passed, this clause was eliminated making it illegal to practice homeopathy, herbology, etc., unless you were a licensed naturopath. Do you think this cannot happen here? Think again!

A NEW PARADIGM

Wouldn’t it be better to put our energies toward an overall Natural Health Board (not a singular naturopathic board) under which all health practitioners of all kinds would be registered? Wouldn’t it be better to have this provide a free and safe environment for an practitioners of natural health like in countries like England? These ideas were suggested by the Attorney General’s office. Skip Humphrey himself states that he “questions whether simply another category of licensure is the best approach” and that “Naturopaths are only one piece of a larger, more complex puzzle.” There is a law that states that one board cannot in another board’s activities. So the medical board could not interfere with the activities of the natural health board.

Wouldn’t it be better for the natural health community to be in charge of their own practitioners and activities with their own board and regulated by the medical board that does no natural health within their field of expertise? Could not the 4-year ND stand as the headlight on this board as an equal but expert member, rather than at the bottom of the medical board under their control?

This is a NEW PARADIGM and when that is true you are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. This is the 90s. We CAN have a new paradigm. We need not be swallowed up by a tired and ineffective system. ANY licensing bill better is NOT than none. This bill jumps out of the gate too fast. Let us take our time and build the definitions in a new paradigm, not fit the new into the old. VOTE AGAINST THIS NATUROPATHIC LICENSING BILL AND PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF THE NATURAL HEALTH COMMUNITY.