How would de-regulations affect the pharmacy professions?

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bjrn

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First of all I feel slightly embarrassed my very first post on this forum is a political one. If these questions are considered rude I apologize.

Here's the deal. I'm a software developer from nothern europe and I am currently (for fun) studying economics and political theory. The past month I've been interested in what would happen with various professions in a very non-regulated, laissez-faire, libertarian society. I've already talked to some other professionals, such as accountants and engineers. Now my thumb is on the pulse of you guys. :)

So here's the question. What do you think would happen with the pharmacist profession if politicians didn't intervene in pharmacy, health care, immigration or anything else that may affect your work?

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I imagine the answer was similar with the engineers, "People would die..."

People depend on specialized knowledge and a demonstration of competency in certain professions. Pharmacy is one of those. We already have people dying from misuse of over-the-counter medications, one can only imagine the mishaps if people had free access to some of our more powerful medications.

Everybody's a libertarian these days. I used to be one myself when I was younger and more naive. It will take less than a decade for the need of government regulation to make itself obvious and a libertarian regime to be overthrown. But please, let's not go there in the first place.
 
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However, people in spain can buy medications without prescriptions, except Plan B I think. I'm not sure how the system work though, but if someone knows please explain! :)
 
However, people in spain can buy medications without prescriptions, except Plan B I think. I'm not sure how the system work though, but if someone knows please explain! :)

In Europe, medications are usually less regulated than in the states, but that does not mean that they are deregulated. I believe that very serious medications (for example substances of narcotic nature) still require prescriptions.
 
In some ways it would improve the profession in that the scope of practice my be able to expand (take the VA system for instance, since they are not under State regulation their pharmacy practice tends to be more innovative then in hospitals that are requlated by the state). However, in some ways it would hurt patients. It all depends on the extent of deregulation.
 
Imagine all the drugs we know about and how many you can easily OD on, now imagine your average joe schmoe pt who thinks if 4 motrin work well then 8 will be awesome. Bad news
 
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