they are going to know much more about the drug you are picking up than your physician who prescribed it. Unfortunately, what they don't have is access to your

they are going to know much more about the drug you are picking up than your physician who prescribed it. Unfortunately, what they don't have is access to your patient file, or for that matter the patient beyond their self-report. They can't diagnose you, so they're not really in a great position to recommend alternative medications. That increases my perception that we need to separate pill-dispensers from medication-experts. The former may still need to do complex work like managing access to narcotics, but the latter should be working directly with doctors and might never actually touch medications.