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Well, provided you're a medically literate person with a functioning, intelligent brain, I don't see a problem with small-town doctors being able to fill prescriptions. The problem is that not everyone is medically literate (an incredibly low number of Americans are medically literate--by that I mean do they have an understanding of health information, information about their care and treatment, etc) so they cannot provide their own check (sadly, this happens quite often--my mom once had several different prescriptions and could not, for the life of her, understand why she was so tired...thanks to various resources I soon figured out that 3 of them shared fatigue as a side effect and when 2 were prescribed together they would increase drowsiness--this is what happens when you go to multiple doctors and multiple pharmacists). Pharmacists are in place because they provide a check.
However, in a small town where there are no other options, a doctor should have the ability to prescribe medications IF the town's pharmacist has a conscientious objection. Yes, I am suggesting this should be done on a case-by-case basis. After all, if we are discussing small-town America, then there shouldn't be that many cases of this happening (I certainly hope not). The state medical board and the doctor's professional association should be required to supervise filling of prescriptions somehow--some kind of oversight is necessary to prevent quackery. If we start off by allowing doctors to fill certain kinds of prescriptions--birth control, mifepristone and misoprostol, and Plan B, for example, then perhaps less oversight will be necessary. If it turns out that a certain town has a pharmacist who won't fill for narcotics, then that particular doctor can get approval from the state medical board to fill prescriptions for narcotics--with oversight. Someone has to provide a check, after all, and goodness knows most patients are incapable of doing so.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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