NC CAM Professionals Dodge Two legislative bullets in 2011
The following open letter is from the North Carolina Colon Hydrotherapy Safety Association, which was closely involved with improving a piece of legislation that would have adversely affected many Complementary and Alternative Medicine professions. Thank you for reading and helping.
Sincerely,
Laura Combs
Dear Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioner:
As you know, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners had quite a scare in the 2011 legislative session regarding Senate Bill (SB) 31, “Clarify the Penalty for the Practice of Unauthorized Medicine.” Senate Bill 31 would have made North Carolina’s practitioners felons. Fortunately, Laura Combs, a private citizen, learned about the bill less than 24 hours before it was set for final approval and launched a campaign to remove the felony provision. Laura’s campaign was successful, and we are able to continue to practice without concern about being charged with a felony.
Senator Mansfield, the sponsor of SB 31, stated during the 2011 session after the felony provision against practitioners was removed from his bill that he wants to address other concerns he has with our professions in an upcoming legislative session (almost certainly the 2013 session when new bills can be introduced). This statement is alarming, as he is a known antagonist of CAM who helped defeat a CAM bill in 2011.
Shortly after the threat of SB 31 was addressed, the North Carolina Colon Hydrotherapy Safety Association’s (NCCHSA) former lobbyist, Dick Carlton, contacted NCCHSA to inform us that another bill threatening colon hydrotherapy and the other practitioners’ professions was making its way through the legislature.
Senate Bill 467
The second threat to practitioners was SB 467, “The Naturopathic Doctors Licensing Act.” According to the original bill, colon hydrotherapists, homeopaths, aromatherapists, herbalists and others would have to be licensed NDs in order to perform their healing practices. If they practiced without being licensed NDs, the bill would have created a new method to charge them with a misdemeanor.
Because of our concern about the ND bill’s impacts on colon hydrotherapists, we contacted Laura and learned that she was a lobbyist when she lived in Florida, she loves this type of work and was eager to help us for a very reasonable fee. As a lobbyist for NCCHSA, Laura quickly got up to speed and convinced the NDs to remove colon hydrotherapy from their bill and remove the individual threats to the other practitioners’ professions. Because of Laura’s persuasiveness and the ND’s openness to addressing the threats, we did not see a need to have Laura launch an effort similar to her campaign against the felony provision in SB 31. In essence, the threats were removed without requiring any action from you.
What’s Next
The effort to address the threats to practitioners caused by SB 467 was costly and unexpected for our organization. We are grateful that our efforts paid off and that a closer relationship with the NDs has developed.
Mutual support in the CAM community is imperative if we are going to increase our profile and reduce the threats from the Medical Society. As you know, the Medical Society remains very antagonistic to many CAM professions.
In the spirit of mutual support, we are asking for a small donation from you to help replenish our funds and fund future efforts to protect our professions. If you are able to help us, please send donations to:
NCCHSA
c/o Alternative Health Center of Cary
919 Kildaire Farm Road
Cary, NC 27511
If you have any questions, please contact Darlene Holloway at 919-380-0023. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Darlene Holloway,
President of NCCHSA and
NCCHSA Directors
