My perspective on the proposed deregulation of TCM herbal medicine

Proposed Regulatory Changes in British Columbia

In British Columbia, health-care regulation for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners is currently undergoing significant changes.

Under the new Health Professions and Occupations Act and the creation of the College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC (CCHPBC), the prescribing, compounding, and dispensing of TCM herbal formulas is slated to no longer be listed as a restricted activity.

This means that, if implemented, unregulated individuals could legally prescribe, compound, and dispense Chinese herbal medicine without formal training or oversight.

For nearly 25 years, TCM in BC has had regulated status under provincial law, including the requirement that only registered practitioners could prescribe specific herbal formulas as a restricted activity.  

The proposed change, currently scheduled to take effect around April 2026, removes that restriction, leading to widespread concern among practitioners and the public about safety, quality, and accountability.

Here is a link to the petition that has been circulating in response to these proposed regulatory changes:👉 Petition: Say No to Deregulation of Traditional Chinese Herbal Prescriptions in BC 

In my view, deregulating Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal medicine poses a serious risk to both public safety and the integrity of the medical system it belongs to.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a complete, internally coherent medical framework with its own diagnostic system. It has multiple integrated modalities, including herbal medicine, acupuncture, tuina, moxibustion, cupping, dietary therapy, and lifestyle guidance.

These modalities are applied through pattern differentiation and clinical assessment, not symptom matching.

Within TCM education, herbal medicine is consistently emphasized as the modality with the greatest potential for harm when misdiagnosed or improperly prescribed. Herbs act systemically, interact with constitution, dosage, preparation method, duration of use, and sometimes pharmaceuticals.

This is precisely why herbal medicine has historically required regulation and professional training.

Deregulating TCM herbs makes misuse far more likely.

Without diagnostic safeguards, individuals will increasingly self-diagnose, source herbs online, and use them without understanding contraindications or pattern specificity.

When harm occurs, it will be attributed to “TCM herbs” rather than to misuse enabled by the absence of regulation. In reality, the harm arises from improper use, not from the medicine itself.

This issue sits within a broader pattern of how TCM is treated in contemporary healthcare discourse.

Western medicine has increasingly recognized principles such as the impact of emotional states on physical health, somatic processing, and the long-term effects of early life experiences.

These ideas are now supported by neuroscience, psychology, and trauma-informed research.

Yet these same principles have always been embedded in TCM theory, where emotional states are understood as etiological, diagnostic, and physiologically consequential.

In my own path through trauma-informed and holistic wellness training, I found myself repeatedly encountering fragmented approaches that addressed pieces of this mind–body relationship.

When I began studying TCM, it became clear that it already provides a comprehensive framework that integrates physical, emotional, and environmental factors into a unified system of care.

Despite this, TCM is frequently conflated with unrelated wellness practices and treated as an aesthetic or informal alternative rather than as a structured medical system.

At the same time, concepts aligned with TCM, such as the movement of emotion through the body and the use of meridian pathways, are increasingly presented in popular modalities without meaningful acknowledgment of their theoretical origins.

Deregulating one of TCM’s core therapeutic pillars reinforces this misunderstanding.

It strips herbal medicine of its diagnostic context, increases the likelihood of harm, and further erodes the legitimacy of a system that already struggles against misrepresentation.

Regulation, in this case, is not a barrier. It is what protects patients and preserves the clinical integrity of the medicine.

Read more on this issue and sign the petition here: 3 Ways to Act to Regain Our Restricted Activity of Prescribing Chinese Herbs