Why is statutory regulation vital?
Firstly it is important to ensure that those practising herbal medicine are properly qualified. Today, most practitioners are educated to degree level with a curriculum which includes a significant amount of orthodox training such as pharmacology and differential diagnosis. However, there is currently no regulation whatsoever: anyone, whether trained or not, can call themselves a herbalist or traditional practitioner and gain access to powerful herbal medicines. This is clearly not in the public interest. A second important reason for statutory regulation is that if it fails to go ahead there will be a loss of a wide range of herbal medicines currently supplied by practitioners to their patients. Full implementation of the new European Traditional Herbal Medicine Directive in April 2011 will see the end the right of practitioners to access finished medicines from manufacturers and herbal suppliers for prescription to individual patients. This includes all finished products such as medi
