by Ethan A. Huff / NaturalNews.com /April 04, 2011
Alternative health practitioners in North Carolina (NC) and their patients need your help to defeat a stealth bill that flew under the radar of most everyone in the natural health community. Senate Bill 31, which clarifies the penalties for the “unauthorized practice of medicine,” essentially criminalizes the practice of unlicensed forms of medicine, which includes the work of many naturopaths, homeopaths, herbalists, aromatherapists, and even some midwives in the state. The bill was adopted by a judiciary committee in early March, and it recently passed the NC Senate. Now, the NC House is set to vote on the bill Monday, April 4th, and unless NC governor Bev Perdue vetoes it, the practice of natural medicine for many in NC may soon become a more severe criminal offense.
SB 31 states that anyone who practices medicine or surgery without having been first “licensed and registered to do so” will be guilty of a Class I felony. Class I felonies in NC are the least severe kinds of felonies, but they do include things like burning crosses on private or public property, and sexually exploiting children. So if passed, SB 31 will essentially make those who practice alternative medicine without an official, state-sanctioned license and permit, criminals of the likes of sexual predators and cross burners.
You can read the short bill for yourself at the following link:
http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/…
Proponents of the bill say it fixes a loophole in the current law that classifies out-of-state practitioners who practice without a license as Class I felons, while in-state practitioners who practice without a license are only guilty of a Class I misdemeanor. But what the bill actually appears to do is make it even harder for alternative practitioners who literally cannot be licensed in NC because their work is not “approved,” to practice at all. After all, who is going to be willing to provide alternative medical services for consenting patients when doing so makes them a felon?
SB 31 is really just another way to target alternative practitioners and reign in the practice of medicine to only that which has been approved by the government overlords. And the timeline for defeating this bill is very short. Alternative practitioners in NC, and those who safely and successfully use their services, need your help now to successfully defeat this bill.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Living in these same mountains (in Tennesse), I can picture someone (whoever that might be) chasing a bunch of old women with bags of ginseng around these hills. If theyr’e anything like mine,(wife, of course) they would be in for a whipping.This has to be a bill that benefits some corporate interests. Everyone around here has an Aunt or Grandmother that has plenty of home remedies for any thing that ails you. They certainly can’t be targeting anyone else.
what’s next? burning witches at the stake? how seriously mid-evil of them to even conceive such a bill. Would someone provide these lawmakers with a large dose of reality….or have the big pharmaceutical companies already bought them?
Obscene.
Just another of the many “benefits” of “big government” – excercising Extreme Ignorance, &/ or Pandering to their affluent Special Interest “patrons.”
Hacks.