840  Changes  in  Pharmacy  Laws.         j  Ambe°ur  1921 arm" 
ience  is  essential,  would  have  the  candidate  for  license  get  a  year  of 
intense  drug  store  training  after  graduation. 
Some  pharmacy  laws  make  employment  in  a  retail  drug  store, 
regardless  of  the  kind  of  work  performed,  a  qualifying  prerequisite, 
but  prohibit  credit  for  practical  experience  in  pharmaceutical  work 
gained  in  other  places.  This  is  obviously  unfair  in  more  than  one 
respect  and  is  perhaps  the  strongest  objection  to  the  experience  re- 
quirement of  such  laws. 
The  drug  store,  the  college,  and  the  hospital  dispensary  all  af- 
ford opportunity  to  gain  experience  in  pharmaceutical  work  directly 
related  to  the  proper  and  safe  conduct  of  the  business  of  a  retail 
drug  store.  In  no  single  one  of  these  places  can  the  practical  ex- 
perience be  acquired  which  a  pharmacist  should  have.  Therefore, 
our  pharmacy  laws  should  provide  an  experience  prerequisite  which 
is  consistent  in  all  respects  with  the  pharmaceutical  work  carried  on 
in  these  respective  places.  The  experience  which  shall  qualify  should 
be  that  gained  in  pharmaceutical  work  only,  and  of  such  period  of 
time  as  the* economic  conditions  controlling  the  conduct  of  the  drug 
business  now  may  warrant. 
When  we  consider  carefully  the  changes  in  the  kind  and  amount 
of  pharmaceutical  work  performed  in  conducting  the  average  re- 
tail drug  store,  from  that  existing  when  four  years  retail  drug  store 
experience  was  adopted  in  most  States  as  sine  qua  non  for  admit- 
tance to  pharmacy  licensing  examinations,  and  which  requirement 
still  prevails  generally,  a  striking  inconsistency  in  the  requirement 
with  present  conditions  is  apparent. 
Among  the  factors  operating  to  reduce  the  actual  pharmcaeuti- 
cal  work  performed  in  the  store  and,  therefore,  making  so  long  a 
term  of  store  experience  unnecessary  for  proper  qualifications  for 
conducting  the  retail  drug  business,  may  be  noted  the  following: 
Competition  of  manufacturing  pharmacists  and  chemists  in  the 
production  of  official  products,  and  their  ready  to  dispense  special 
formulas  or  prescriptions  now  so  much  employed  by  physicians ;  tab- 
let and  biologic  medication ;  legal  standards  for  pharmaceutical  prod- 
ucts which  must  be  determined  by  assay;  laws  and  regulations  con- 
trolling the  use  of  alcohol  and  narcotics ;  increased  compensation  of 
clerks ;  limitation  in  the  daily  hours  of  service  caused  by  labor  laws  ; 
and  the  chain  store. 
Obviously,  these  have  wrought  their  influence,  also,  in  making) 
