Any Oriental Medicine practitioner who actually completed a 3,000-5,000 hour course of education from an accredited college, and thereafter passed the required examinations, would certainly
know what the chemical composition and medicinal actions are for any individual Chinese herb, any Chinese herbal formula, or any Chinese patent medicine sold in shops anywhere! Thus, if the practitioner in the article
didn't know these things, their formal education was clearly deficient, which usually translates to mean self-taught from reading books and perhaps taking a few weekend workshops or such prior to commencing a professional clinic practice.
While government regulation or licensing requirements and exams can usually weed out such individuals, and provide the general public with a greater sense of security and a greater expectation of competency in pursuing a course of treatment via Oriental Medicine, it can also have a down side as well.
In the USA, most States require completion of a 3,000-5,000 hour course of education and examinations from a Nationally Accredited College, followed by passing one or more required examinations for legal regulation or licensing. In virtually every State, however, this process is overseen and administrated by a State Board of Acupuncture Examiners under the general umbrella of the State Board of Medical Examiners, if not directly regulated by the Medical Board.
This scenario has most often resulted in ever increasing regulatory requirements and restrictions related to Oriental Medicine, which eventually either prevents or eliminates any reasonable likelihood of being able to secure or maintain the required license. When these measures fail to get rid of the pesky acupuncturists, further legislation is eventually passed into law which requires the Licensed Acupuncturist (L.AC.) to only receive new patients that are formally referred to them by a Licensed Physician (M.D.), which rarely happens.
This leaves those who are the least educated and the least competent in Oriental Medicine techniques, such as Medical Doctors (M.D), Chiropractors (D.C.), and in some places Clinical Psychologists, as the most accessible providers of acupuncture or other Oriental Medicine treatment services under the legal auspices of an unrelated professional license. Meanwhile, those who are the best educated and most competent to provide Oriental Medicine treatment services, the Licensed Acupuncturists (L.AC.), are consistently hamstrung with increased legal impediments and large numbers of less educated and less competent competitors.
In this way, the Licensed Acupuncturist's ability to generate a professional income from their Oriental Medicine practice is ultimately killed in many parts of the country, and they eventually disappear accordingly, as planned all along. This is apparently viewed by the mainstream medical community as the best way to eliminate real acupuncturists as Primary Health Care competitors! A sad state of affairs for both the professional Oriental Medicine practitioners and for their potential contributions to the health care of their local communities.