In a massive and historic outpouring by practicing chiropractors, students, patients and the general public, practicing chiropractors and their supporters are demanding that the controlling factions within the chiropractic profession stop the introduction of drugs into chiropractic practice.

According to the Movement for Chiropractic Quality and Integrity, at issue is the systematic remaking of the profession by what has been called a “Cartel” operated within the profession that is asserting its influence to turn chiropractic into a branch or subset of the medical profession.

So effective has been the Cartel’s campaign to overhaul the profession that chiropractic can no longer be considered a drugless profession since chiropractors can now prescribe certain types of drugs in some states and at least one school, National University of Health Sciences, has changed the name of its educational program to Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine. These changes were spurred in part by the actions of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) the profession’s sole accrediting agency, and other members of the Chiropractic Cartel.

Over 12,000 people have already signed an online petition to protest the CCE’s changes in their educational standards. With their virtually complete control over the education and licensing of the entire chiropractic profession, the CCE has changed its Standards by which chiropractic educational programs are accredited. Those changes include the characterization of chiropractors as “primary care physicians” while removing the designation of chiropractic as occurring without drugs and surgery. Most significant is the sidelining of the chiropractic profession’s reason to be – management of the vertebral subluxation. Since its inception, chiropractic has focused its clinical practice on the identification and management of this spinal problem which results when the bones of the spine lose their normal position or do not move properly, subsequently interfering with how the nervous system works.

The petition also calls on the United States Department of Education (USDOE) to give serious consideration to a series of complaints that have been lodged with them by the profession regarding governance of the CCE. Over 4000 complaints were received by the Committee that oversees the regulation of accrediting agencies for the USDOE and they are being urged to consider these complaints which outline various violations by the CCE. The CCE is scheduled for a hearing to review its Recognition by the USDOE this December.

It was during the last hearing on CCE’s Recognition that the USDOE Committee itself referred to the existence of a “Cartel” and “monopoly” operating within the chiropractic profession. The CCE is the chiropractic profession’s sole educational accrediting agency and the majority of chiropractic regulatory boards require graduation from a CCE accredited chiropractic institution in order to get a license to practice in the state.

In addition to the unusual control the CCE has over the licensing of chiropractors it is also considered part of a Cartel within the profession consisting of various testing agencies, licensing boards, state and national trade organizations and companies doing business within the profession. It is asserted that this Cartel is acting to change the very nature of chiropractic by expanding chiropractic’s scope of practice by requiring chiropractors to be trained as physicians, introducing drugs into their clinical practice and relegating to history what has been the profession’s primary clinical objective – the management of vertebral subluxation.

This has set up a perfect storm for a battle between those within the profession who wish to give up their traditional, conservative practice to take advantage of a broader scope through a merging with medicine and those who wish the profession to remain separate and distinct from organized medicine and keep its focus on the analysis and correction of vertebral subluxation.

The goal of the Movement for Chiropractic Quality and Integrity is to gather 1 million supporters to the cause in order to alert practicing chiropractors, the public, legislators and regulators that chiropractic should remain a separate and distinct profession and allow the American people to have the freedom to choose a drugless, non-surgical approach for their health care needs.

To access the online petition, go to https://www.change.org/petitions/us-department-of-education-restore-inte...