Any time I wander close enough to the pharmacy counter at the local Walgreens, I spy the gaggle of green-haired and tattooed 20-something’s (or 30-somethings!) I thank whatever gods may be for my good health. Yes, that’s judgmental, but it’s based on experience, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with them doing much more than selling me bandaids. These people incorrectly fill prescriptions with clockwork timing, contributing to the third highest death rate in the US, euphemistically dubbed “medical error”.
These people have a power that few members of the public know about: they can refuse to fill your prescription, overriding the wisdom of a seasoned doctor, and leaving you and your health in the lurch.
So, yes, that weakly-bearded, overweight incel with iPhone posture you see shuffling around amid all the identical-looking rows of pills and liquids, a veritable sentient pubis mons, can stand between you and your health if he so desires, because the law hasn’t stepped in and removed an enormous amount of power that no one should be able to wield, much less the people that the public is forced to interact with day-to-day.
There is no more fundamental truth about human nature than the fact that power creates sensitive egos and god complexes. This level of discretion belongs to no one aside from a doctor, and only because someone needs to wield it. You are prescribed a medication, and the pharmacist should fill it, no attitude, no bitching, no passive aggressive hassling or condescension. Many of these drugs should probably not even need a prescription, but until they’ve been made generic, obtaining the prescription shouldn’t be a hassle, especially for anyone in dire need and who has obtained a legal right to it.
Some argue that government shouldn’t step in, that it would be an act of overbearing government to do so. Horse manure to that notion. The role of government is to prevent this type of power imbalance in the market, if we can even consider such a regulation-strewn industry as medicine a market at all.
Ask anyone who relies on a prescription to function in their day-to-day lives whether it’s a f—-ing pain in their backside to go to the pharmacy to get a refill. Everyone has a story of a “run-in” with a pharmacist with an axe-blade sized chip on their shoulder. Strip this power from these people immediately. And if they fill your prescription wrong, resulting in injury or death, and prison should be the immediate next step.
