Legislative commission rejects homeopathic regulation

Friday, June 26, 1998 | 8:50 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislative Commission Friday rejected a proposal to allow homeopathic physicians to write full-scale pharmaceutical prescriptions, including those for dangerous drugs.

The commission sent the state Board of Homeopathic Examiners back to the drawing board to rewrite the regulation to limit the scope of what can be prescribed. The regulation can then be re-submitted for approval.

This was another chapter in the ongoing dispute between traditional doctors and homeopathic physicians who advocate alternate treatments.

Dr. Fuller Royal, a homeopath from Las Vegas and chairman of the homeopathic board, said he doubted this legislative group would approve anything and that the battle will be renewed at the 1999 Legislature.

"Maybe the election can take care of our needs," he said.

Royal blamed the defeat on the state Board of Medical Examiners, which he said has opposed homeopathic physicians since 1983. He said the medical examiners were worried about "turf" and he wondered why that board was so concerned with homeopaths instead of disciplining their own members.

But Robert Barengo, a lobbyist for the medical board, said a bill passed by the 1997 Legislature did not give homeopaths the right to broaden what drugs could be prescribed. This means that the regulation of the homeopathic board is void since it exceeds what's allowed in the law.

The bill gave homeopaths the right to use neural and orthomolecular therapy. The homeopathic board believes these two therapies translate into prescription drugs and dangerous narcotics. And this was included in the proposed regulation to permit expanded prescription power.

But medical doctors disputed the definition of those terms to mean prescription drugs. Barengo said the homeopathic board has redefined the words in the law "to mean something else."

The state Board of Pharmacy and the Nevada State Medical Association joined in the opposition to the regulation. Pharmacy Board Director Keith Macdonald said in a letter to the legislative commission that the present law "expressly limits the drug choices to homeopathic remedies," by homeopathic physicians.

Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said he was told specifically by the homeopathic lobbyist in 1977 that the bill did not expand the prescription ability of that profession.

He said, "If the (homeopathic) board is intending to make an end run, I'd be very upset," referring to the regulation.

Perkins was chairman of the Assembly Commerce Committee which processed the bill. Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said there appears to be a fraud committed on the Legislature if the terms neural and orthomolecular therapy allow full scale prescriptions by homeopaths.

"It seems somebody lied," said Buckley, who was vice chair of the Assembly committee.

But Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, who chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, said he had a different recollection of the bill, siding with homeopathic physicians.

Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, suggested the legislative commission could amend the regulation to permit the homeopathic physicians to prescribe pain killing drugs only. But others said the full regulation must be rewritten and re-submitted.