As the country tries to grapple with human trafficking challenges, we are seeing local governments develop new strategies to fight this criminal activity. While ABMP commends the desire we see at all levels of government to take down these criminal enterprises that cause unimaginable damage to people and communities, it is critical we ensure measures are taken to effectively fight crime without harming innocent people and businesses. 

Unfortunately, one initiative spreading across the country is not accomplishing either objective. Local massage therapy ordinances, a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to fight human trafficking operations at a local level, impose additional, burdensome regulations on licensed massage therapists. Such regulations have cropped up from coast to coast, and they seem to be causing nothing but financial strain and stress for ABMP members and their communities. 

Local ordinances are in addition to, not in place of, state massage regulations and statutes. This means that in places like Chesterfield County, Virginia, for example, MTs must obtain duplicate licenses: state and local licenses and local business permits. In general, establishment licensing is superfluous. At a minimum, establishment licensing rules should exempt solo practitioners, but ABMP believes any establishment licensing is overkill. Massage therapists go through hundreds of hours of education, submit to background checks and fingerprinting, pass a national psychometric exam, complete continuing education requirements in some states, and are held to a high ethical standard, all so they can provide therapeutic, necessary aid to millions of Americans. Is it really their responsibility to combat human trafficking or is law enforcement passing the buck? 

Local ordinances are intended to give law enforcement extra tools to combat human trafficking, but in practice, they do little to stop crime. Human trafficking operations don’t function like legitimate businesses. Local regulatory hurdles are often summarily ignored by criminals, just like they ignore state and federal laws. If local ordinances become too much of a nuisance, the organization will simply jump to another town to continue their operations, leaving law-abiding MTs to continue paying unnecessary fees while the criminals face no punishment. The idea that a piece of paper costing a couple hundred dollars will stop an entire criminal enterprise that trades on human lives is unfathomable, and local governments must stop churning out new ordinances as a solution to human trafficking. 

ABMP believes the governance of a profession licensed by the state should fall solely on the state. Statewide massage licensure and regulation of the profession gives local law enforcement all the authority needed to crack down on bad actors. The solution is not to continue to pile onerous restrictions onto massage therapists but to educate and empower law enforcement to tackle the human trafficking blight within the scope of the authority already granted to them. We need to expand the reporting process so members of the public can safely and anonymously report criminal enterprises. District attorneys need to place a higher priority on pursuing prostitution cases, going after the leaders of human trafficking rings rather than the victims. And we must work to end this patchwork quilt of ineffective and harmful local ordinances that are damaging the massage therapy profession. Are double massage therapy fees worth minimal results? We think not.