The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) House of Delegates (HOD) met in Washington, D.C. during the 2015 National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC) and approved a resolution establishing a College of Chiropractic Pharmacology and Toxicology.

The resolution was submitted by Dr. Cindy Howard; Dr. Mike Simone; Dr. Rob Jones; Dr. Bob Nelson; Dr. Ric Bruns; Dr. Tony Hamm

CLICK HERE TO READ THE RESOLUTION 

While the ACA has been supporting the push towards inclusion of drugs into the practice of chiropractic for many years the move apparently surprised the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) which has been working closely with the ACA through the Summit Group for many years. According to a Press Release from the ICA:

“ICA's leadership has expressed similar concerns as it is now clear that there are forces at work within some organizations, actively promoting the incorporation of drugs into the scope of chiropractic practice. This is in clear contravention of the statement that the organizations that comprise The Chiropractic Summit--including the ACA--adopted at Seattle, Washington on November 7, 2013”   

The ACA and the ICA are part of the Summit Group of chiropractors and organizations seeking to expand the role of chiropractic into primary care.

The Chiropractic Summit adopted a “Position Statement” their meeting in Seattle, Washington on November 7, 2013, which reads: 

"The drug issue is a non-issue because no chiropractic organization in the Summit promotes the inclusion of prescription drug rights and all chiropractic organizations in the Summit support the drug-free approach to health care."

This statement is believed to have been issued in an effort to downplay an earlier decision in November 2012 when the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) assembled an “ad hoc Consensus Committee” in Phoenix, AZ. According to a document from the meeting:

“The charge to the committee was to develop mutually agreeable language for incorporation into the Foreword (Preface) to the CCE accreditation standards that acknowledges the scope of practice and identity of the chiropractic profession.” 

In the recent battles between the CCE and various stakeholder groups within the profession, the topic that has received the most attention involves the removal of “without drugs and surgery” from the CCE Accreditation Standards.

Numerous other issues were involved in the ongoing accreditation concerns, including the most important – primary care. However, it was predicted that victory in the accreditation war would be declared by the conservative, traditional faction as soon as “without drugs and surgery” was put back in the Standards.

That did not happen.

The Consensus Document produced by this Ad Hoc Committee, including a representative of the ICA included the following changes to the Preface to the CCE Accreditation Standards: 

“Practice primary health care as a portal-of-entry provider for patients of all ages and genders focusing on the inherent ability of the body to heal and enhance function without unnecessary drugs or surgery.”

The key difference being the insertion of the word “unnecessary”.

The implication being that chiropractors would only ever prescribe “necessary drugs”. So at this point not only was “without drugs and surgery” not put back in the Standards but the use of drugs themselves were put into the Standards. This all makes sense in the larger context of efforts in multiple states to include drugs and injectables into the scope. In addition, the drug issue is a Red Herring since the real issue is Primary Care. While some within the conservative faction believe that primary care can be practiced without drugs, the rest of the world does not agree – including the controlling faction of the chiropractic profession.

The effort by the ACA to establish a College of Pharmacology, include the use of the term “Chiropractic Medicine” and to highlight the practice of primary care should come as no surprise to anyone in chiropractic politics. Any hint of shock or surprise can only be due to absolute ignorance of the history of this profession, naiveté or purposeful deceit.

Matters were made worse in November 2013 when the ICA blindsided the rest of the conservative faction of the profession by breaking ranks with a newly formed coalition whose goal was to address the accreditation and drug crisis in the profession.

The ICA decided to join with the rest of the Chiropractic Cartel and back the CCE during their December hearing before the United States Department of Education.

The CCE subsequently received reaffirmation of their accreditation with the USDOE for three years based on the widespread support from members of the Chiropractic Summit Group, including the ICA, who all provided supportive testimony during the hearing.

In addition to the establishment of a College of Pharmacology the ACA also issued two related Resolutions including an “Ideal Practice Act” which supports primary care, prescriptive authority and full scope practice based on the CCE standards as well as postgraduate training.

The other Resolution passed by the ACA HOD calls for the inclusion of full scope practice rights under Medicare.