842 
Changes  in  Pharmacy  Laws. 
5  A.m.  Jour.  Pharm 
(      Dec,  1921. 
because  it  has  become  too  costly  for  pharmacists  to  pay  the  wages 
demanded  by  educated  persons  and  permit  them  to  employ  their 
time  in  such  service.  Graduation  from  a  reputable  college  of  phar- 
macy is  the  legal  requirement  for  pharmacy  licensure  in  nearly  half 
the  States,  and  we  are  fast  approaching  the  day  when  this  will  be 
required  by  all. 
These  changes  in  the  economic  conditions  affecting  the  business 
and  practice  of  pharmacy,  and  the  education  of  the  pharmacist,  call 
for  adjustment  of  the  practical  experience  prerequisite  of  nearly  all 
pharmacy  laws.  More  particularly,  however,  for  States  which  have 
adopted  the  college  of  pharmacy  graduation  prerequisite.  In  the 
latter  pharmacists  must  be  persons  who  have  been  taught  systemati- 
cally the  properties  and  uses  of  drugs  and  poisons,  and  the  art  of 
compounding  them,  in  a  school  properly  equipped  for  giving  such 
instruction.  This  of  itself  warrants  a  considerable  reduction  in  the 
term  of  store  experience,  for  this  teaching  responsibility  no  longer 
rests  upon  the  preceptor  in  its  entirety  and  the  time  required  under 
store  conditions  in  which  to  do  it  may  be  deducted  justly. 
For  candidates  desiring  registration  as  pharmacist  a  short  term 
of  practical  experience  could  be  adopted  at  once  in  a  number  of 
States,  without  lessening  in  any  important  relation  the  qualifica- 
tions of  a  person  intrusted  with  legal  authority  to  conduct  a  phar- 
macy. 
Present  conditions  in  States  having  the  college  of  pharmacy 
graduation  prerequisite  warrant  the  adoption  at  once  of  a  two 
years'  practical  experience  requirement,  confined  to  actual  pharma- 
ceutical work,  one  year  of  which  shall  have  been  gained  in  a  retail 
pharmacy  under  the  immediate  supervision  and  instruction  of  a 
registered  pharmacist. 
With  such  requirement  provision  should  be  made  for  crediting 
experience  gained  in  the  dispensary  of  a  public  hospital,  or  other  in- 
stitution, and  in  the  hospital  corps  of  the  U.  S.  Army,  or  U.  S. 
Navy,  if  acquired  under  supervision  of  a  registered  pharmacist.  But 
as  all  phases  of  pharmaceutical  experience  connected  with  the  op- 
eration of  a  retail  drug  store  are  not  available  in  either  of  these 
places,  and  in  view  of  the  short  term  to  be  required,  a  reasonable  dif- 
ference should  be  made  in  the  credit  as  compared  with  that  allowed 
for  experience  gained  in  the  retail  drug  store. 
