Can the government throw you in jail for offering advice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EixDJ25Lc


"Can the government throw you in jail for offering advice on the Internet about what food people should buy at the grocery store?

That is exactly the claim made by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. In December 2011, diabetic blogger Steve Cooksey started a Dear Abby-style advice column on his popular blog ([url=http://www.diabetes-warrior.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]www.diabetes-warrior.net[/url]) to answer reader questions. One month later, the State Board informed Steve that he could not give readers advice on diet, whether for free or for compensation, because doing so constituted the unlicensed, and thus criminal, practice of dietetics. The State Board also told Steve that his private emails and telephone calls with readers and friends were illegal, as was his paid life-coaching service. The State Board went through Steve's writings with a red pen, indicating what he may and may not say without a government-issued license.
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Is that so different than someone giving medical advice without being a doctor? Or legal advice without being a lawyer? Both are very bad ideas and illegal.

"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the internet." Busted!

archer wrote: Is that so different than someone giving medical advice without being a doctor? Or legal advice without being a lawyer? Both are very bad ideas and illegal.

Is there any government over reach you have a problem with? There is a difference between giving medical or legal advice and pretending to be a doctor or a lawyer. On is human the other is fraud.

Blazer Bob wrote:

archer wrote: Is that so different than someone giving medical advice without being a doctor? Or legal advice without being a lawyer? Both are very bad ideas and illegal.

Is there any government over reach you have a problem with? There is a difference between giving medical or legal advice and pretending to be a doctor or a lawyer. On is human the other is fraud.

There is a lot of government over reach I have a problem with.....seat belt laws for adults, not allowing bar/restaurant owners to decide if they will allow smoking or not, limiting the size of soft drinks you can order, and many, many more.

Giving out advice on the internet, or in a newspaper that can effect a person's health.....or giving out legal advice in a public forum when you are not licensed to practice law, those things can harm someone and that should be regulated.

But consider this...it is illegal to give out good medical advice if you aren't a physician but legal to give out bad advice if you are one...I am a doctor I smoke Camels.

FredHayek wrote: But consider this...it is illegal to give out good medical advice if you aren't a physician but legal to give out bad advice if you are one...I am a doctor I smoke Camels.

Really? I never heard a doctor who smoked advise his patients to take up the habit. The advice given by a doctor has a greater chance of being correct than someone who isn't a doctor, and they carry malpractice insurance.

Ann Landers - “I don't believe that you have to be a cow to know what milk is.”

http://www.famousquotes.com/author/anders/5

I was jokingly referring to the old cigarette ads where doctors would be smoking.

As long as he does not claim to be the thing they immorally license, who cares?

Plus free speech is free speech. Am I now a false lawyer for saying that. Archer, you need to start respecting free speech more than licensed BS.