Health freedom in Louisiana December 2005
Louisiana’s naturopaths and homeopaths gained legal protection in August when the state legislature passed a health-freedom law protecting their right to counsel clients.

The new law specifies that vendors of food, dietary supplements and homeopathic remedies who collect a consulting fee will not be charged with practicing medicine without a license, as long as they disclose to their clients that they are not licensed health-care professionals. The law will not affect massage therapists, who have been licensed in the state since 1992.

Louisiana is the sixth state to pass a freedom-of-access law. Minnesota, Rhode Island, California, Idaho and Oklahoma have passed similar laws.

— Kelle Walsh