*do*
Sounds like a dumb question at first, but when I think about how much hate prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industries get, it makes feel like I am not giving as much value to society as I'd like by choosing pharmacy as a profession. A lot of these drugs have a seemingly endless list of side effects. People commonly abuse painkillers and the pills that affect that mind. More people die from prescription drugs than illegal drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs also get blamed so much when people talk about negative things in the world. I hear things like "just like how the common medical approach is to just give people pills...our culture makes people look for quick fixes rather than find the real solution blah blah...etc etc"
Can somebody convince me I am wrong?
If you are interested in the pharmacy field and you are asking the question "how much do pharmacist actually help people", I suggest you get a job in the field to learn the multitude roles of a pharmacist before you continue on with your journey, and you will learn how important it is to have a pharmacist in the community. Pharmacists are the core of health care and patient well being, of course there are side effects to everything, but when you have a sickness, the medication side affects are greater then what the person is going through. Some patients are prescribed multiple medications because they believe that the effect of those two drugs working together are greater then the individual effects; and this is called a synergistic effect.
There will always be so much debate about money in this world, pertaining to any field, however, we still need passionate and positive people who are knowledgable in the field to help others as much as they can. Regarding the "quick fix" comment, most often, it does seem that patients are prescribed medications to combat things in life such as disease, depression, anxiety, etc. However, that is not a pharmacist doing, that is what the doctor is ordering for the patient, and the Pharmacist is dispensing the medication while making sure that these medications cannot be harmful with anything else that the patient may be taking. The doctor most likely does not discuss the medication with the patient in detail, it is the pharmacist who answers those questions, and ultimately, it is up to the patient on whether or not they want to take the medication. They can come up with this conclusion with their community pharmacist, and a pharmacist could also recommend non-prescription alternatives if they believe medications can be avoided. Medications are not always a bad thing as you are making them seem. If a patient has cancer, there is not a way to "find a real solution" as you stated, medications and treatments will be needed to hopefully beat the cancer, or possibly buy more time for the patient to spend their last moments with their friends and/or family.
As for the never ending talk about drug companies, the only people that know the numbers of that business are those in the industry. However, I do know that it takes 10-12 years for a drug to go through a research lab for the FDA to approve it. Where do you think this money comes from? I assume that there is a lot of money being spent throughout the long course of 10-12 years not only on research material, but also paying the highly qualified researchers. This is a factor in the reason drug prices are so high, because I don't think people understand that it takes a decade for a drug to be released into the market, and a lot of money is spent during this time. Aside from their expenses, the industry also needs to be profiting money themselves. Another factor that may contribute to medication prices being so high is the limited resources available at a particular point in time, when resources are scarce to make a medication; just like with anything else, the prices will increase.
Regarding pain medication, I believe it is absolutely abused, but that is not an issue of the Pharmacist. A pharmacist has the right to deny filling a controlled substance pain medication to their own discretion, and that can make it more difficult for others to obtain. However, this issue can not be solved by pharmacies being adament to not fill pain medication; in cases where there don't consider it needed, it's the doctors who are making prescriptions easier to obtain. My slight input on this is that if there were more doctors to attend to patients in the office, then there wouldn't be a need to rush the patient out of the room, while doing the only thing that seemingly makes sense, which is to prescribe them medication. This also may connect onto there being too many people on welfare, and not enough money to support the system, but I will stop here since this conversation can be endless.
Norco has recently become a schedule 2 medication, meaning that patients are no longer allowed to have refills, and they must obtain a new prescription from the doctor each month. Other medications that were not controlled substances before, have recently been placed in the control substance category. The government keeps close tabs on pain medications that doctors are prescribing and how often the doctor is prescribing them. Legally, with a control substance there is supposed to be a diagnosis code that the doctor provides to tell the pharmacist and insurance company why the patient needs the medication. I truly do not believe that pain medication will stop being abused even with the recent regulations, and I do believe doctors will continue to prescribe them. Being a pharmacist is not all about dispensing pain medications to patients so they can over dose and die, there are far more ill patients out there who need their medications in order to live a better life. The human body is unpredictable, things can change in matter of seconds, and to have drugs that act as inhibitors to block a synthesis of some type from occurring in the problematic area could save a life. (that was just one example)
You will not find answers on the internet as to whether a profession is "valuable to society" unless one has worked in the setting for a long period of time, in order to understand the ins and outs of the field. You are really jumping ahead of your self with your assumptions, and you are not figuring out ways to actively contribute to society by searching for answers about a serious professional field on google. If pharmacy has crossed your mind as an interest, I suggest you get a job in the field and find out for yourself how much this profession contributes positively to society, before you begin to make irrational assumptions. As harsh as my comment may sound, the world will not spoon feed you information such as this, if you have developed a desire for something, then you need to figure out a way to become involved in it. I have seen way too many pharmacists who have walked into a pharmacy setting with the intention of only checking prescriptions through until it's time for them to go home, and dismissing all of the other duties a pharmacist is supposed to carry on. Any profession can involve professionals who don't contribute value to society, if they don't care about the people they are helping. It is solely up to the intention of an individual to make themselves a "valuable" asset to society, it is not the profession that will determine that for you.
My intention here was not to shut down any dreams of you wanting to pursue pharmacy as a career. But I do believe that if someone has a dream, it is their responsibility to become active before they decide to enter a program, so that they can asses whether or not they believe they can contribute to the profession in a positive way. Another piece of advice is, try to be open minded to possibilities, before automatically assuming the worst of things, you will find yourself being much more productive.
I normally do not provide such an extensive input, but your post struck me with a feeling of it being necessary to provide realistic feedback.
Good luck in the path you choose.
