Medecine

[Shaolin_Disciple_8]

Anyone knows some shaolin gong fu masters who learned chinese medecine and teach it?

[daodejing]

Alot of them do, but if you're interested in practicing chinese medicine in the united states or europe without getting arrested, you need to go to a TCM college and pass licensure exams. And in some states/countries, you may need to be an MD as well.

[Shaolin_Disciple_8]

Can I just do a test evaluating my capacities?

[daodejing]

?

If you practice chinese medicine in the United States, in the form of acupuncture or herbalism, without being a licensed practitioner, you can be arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

[Pk_StyLeZ]

wat if u practice tcm on ur self or ur friends but with no charge?is that stil illegal?

[zachsan]

well, considering the possibility of lawsuits, it certainly sounds like it might be profitable for your friends.

[daodejing]

Well, you can practice on yourself. But I think it might be a violation of the statutes even if you're practicing free of charge on other people. Now, you can do qigong, tui na, and massage without charging people and that's fine. But you're not supposed to be sticking needles in people or prescribing them herbs unless you're licensed. But there's alot more to chinese medicine than just acupuncture, don't let that dissuade you from studying.

[doc]

It's called "battery". A felony, punishable by up to five years in jail, lol. And that's just the criminal side of it, the civil side is where you lose your assets.

Or, to be more accurate, where your attorneys get your assets...

[Pk_StyLeZ]

so technically...if someone drinks tea...then that against the law..cuz tea is made of herbs...and lots of traditional chinese say drink certain type of tea to get heatlhier and etc...so...if u drink tea...then u are practicing tcm...and if u practice tcm with no license..u against the law...so ya??
i dont know??

[doc]

No. People drink tea of their own free will. Battery requires unrequested physical contact. And offering someone tea would not constitute practicing medicine without a license; it's only tea, regardless of what its TCM properties are.

Now, if it's tea laced with "prescription only" medications, now you've got a problem.

[zachsan]

there are a whole lot of non-prescription "medications" in TCM, though, which you can pick up at a We Love Nature shop or something like that. it occurs to me that, if your non-licensed friend tells you to take a certain over-the-counter pill, and for whatever reason, your body doesn't react well, you can't really blame the non-licensed TCM guy for it. unless he lied and told you he was licensed, of course. maybe such things are up to state law, who knows.

[doc]

If it's OTC (over the counter), a friend can't be held liable, regardless of how he presents himself. Technically, you put the readily available medication into your mouth on your own free will.

OTC meds vary from country to country. Things that are prescription only in the US can be easily found in Asia OTC.