Homeopathic board OK’s alternative practice

Monday, June 26, 2000 | 4:29 a.m.

The regulations unanimously approved Saturday allow homeopaths to offer patients herbal, vitamin and nutritional treatments, along with a variety of therapies.

Homeopaths also could offer drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration to consenting patients.

Homeopathic board Chairman Fuller Royal said patients want the right to choose not only traditional medicine, but from emerging alternative treatments.

But the board's action prompted Richard Legarza, chief counsel for the Board of Medical Examiners, to stomp out of the meeting. He pledged to go to the Legislature to block final approval of the regulations.

"I think there is quite a lot of voodoo out there, quite frankly," Legarza said.

The Board of Medical Examiners and Nevada State Medical Association opposed the regulations.

Homeopathic physician David Edwards described the dispute as a "turf battle" between homeopaths and the medical establishment.

Traditional homeopathy is a medical practice begun in the 1700s by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann. He believed the body could eventually cure itself if patients were given small amounts of the substances that caused their illnesses.

But most Nevada homeopaths have gone beyond the Hahnemann tradition.