Your Daily Dose of Health

I was given this by a CNME ND and asked to share this information: 

 * The CNME “Naturopathic Doctors” seek to register or license only themselves – 97 total “Doctors” in the state of Colorado. (these few practitioners attended one of the six “chosen” schools that exist in North America & Canada)… The AANP/CNME graduates have been attempting to pass exclusionary and monopolistic legislation, to take total control of the naturopathic profession in Colorado and the entire country.

ND’s have been to a school recognized by the US Dept of Ed, we want to make it legal to call ourselves doctors. The consumer protection act otherwise prohibits this, so people who went to Clayton are already prohibited from calling themselves doctors. This law simply makes it legal for those with the recognized schooling to do so.* No exemptions within this bill exist for classically trained homeopaths, nutritional counselors, herbalists, lifestyle counselors and coaches, or nutraceutical representatives, and businesses. 16,000 Coloradans would NOT be able to practiceThere is no exemption because the bill does not pertain to any of these people. HB 1175 does NOT change their status or their ability to do whatever they chose. They simply can’t call themselves Naturopathic Doctors and we can. It is a COMPLETE lie that it would affect 16,000 other people. It does not. In fact, in states that are already licensed, homeopaths, herbalists, etc continue to thrive and work well with NDs.* Second and any subsequent offenses would be a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.Someone found to be practicing as a Naturopathic Doctor outside the temporary scope of practice that has been set up too look at the practice of naturopathic medicine in the State of Colorado, could be punished as above. If a person is a homeopath and is practicing homeopathy or is an herbalist and is practicing as an herbalist, or someone else is selling or using vitamins as a health coach, they are NOT affected, in any way.· Stress the fact that the Dept of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) would need to be augmented, and our state DOES NOT have the money right now.Decisions to protect consumers by creating a task force, which is paid for by the NDs, happen whether the economy is good or bad. This bill does cost the state money.· Then, all cases that DORA might get a hold of (such as holistic practices being prosecuted as felonies) would then be sent to the DA’s office (more cost). The DA needs to be available (time and $) for prosecuting true criminal cases, not benign holistics.Holistic practioners are not affected by this bill and can continue to practice so they would not be prosecuted for anything. If people call themselves NDs, it is meant to imply that they have attended a four year naturopathic medical doctoral program, recognized by the US Dept of Ed, so if people are falsely representing themselves as NDs, they could be investigated. If people call themselves doctors at this time, they are violating the consumer protection act, therefore, ND’s would like legally be recognized as doctors. We have no interest in not including others. If others go to schools where their doctorate degrees are recognized by the US Dept of Ed, we would love to include them. Clayton College has known for many, many years that their doctorate degrees are not recognized by the Dept of Ed and has never pursued trying to do so. * 16,000 holistics practitioners not able to work X $20K yearly average income = massive loss of state income tax revenue & state sales tax. (not exactly a DORA decision, but $ are $, and this committee makes $ decisions)The bill doesn’t affect them. They can still practice as homeopaths, health coaches, herbalists, etc. and therefore still have an income.* Vote NO on HB 1175 because this bill would continue to grow the size of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies at a time when other more deserving state agencies are suffering massive cuts and jobs are being lost in droves in the private sector.What a poor argument. NDs pay for the task force, not the State of Colorado.Fear is never a good motivator. What could possibly create such fear? In states that licence NDs, NDs pay large sums of money to the state yearly to maintain licenses, benefiting the state economy.In state that license NDs, herbalists and herb companies thrive. Homeopaths can make good incomes. Many of these individuals choose collaboration over fear and create healthy relationships with NDs, whereby there is cross-referral. It is already happening in other states.As fellow practitioners of the healing arts, we could only benefit in continuing to work collaboratively with homeopaths, herbalists, health coaches, etc. We simply want our doctorate degree recognized so that we can practice legally.