Telephone survey of Alaskan pharmacists' nonprescription needle-selling practices.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the availability of nonprescription needles and syringes (NS) through pharmacy sales and to assess the impact of pharmacy policies and municipal paraphernalia laws on pharmacists' selling practices.


METHODS
Telephone survey of all pharmacies in Alaska's four largest cities.


METHODS
Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Ketchikan, Alaska.


METHODS
A single pharmacist from each pharmacy represented in the cities' phone books.


METHODS
Reports of (1) pharmacies' policies and individual pharmacists' procedures regarding the nonprescription sale of NS, (2) pharmacists' selling practices, and (3) identification of conditions that may affect pharmacists' decisions to sell nonprescription NS.


RESULTS
Response rate of 86% (37/43); 77% of pharmacists reported selling at least one nonprescription NS in the last month. Store policy was related to selling practices; however, there was no difference in selling practices between a city with a paraphernalia law and cities without such laws. Logistic regression revealed pharmacists were more likely to sell NS if they worked in chain pharmacies and estimated that a high number of other local pharmacists sell nonprescription NS.


CONCLUSIONS
NS are available through nonprescription sales in Alaskan pharmacies. The majority of pharmacies have store policies that permit pharmacists to sell nonprescription NS, either in all cases or at their discretion. Municipal paraphernalia laws do not determine the selling practices of individual pharmacists.
Harbke
C R
CR
IVDU Project, University of Alaska Anchorage, 99508, USA.
Fisher
D G
DG
Cagle
H H
HH
Trubatch
B N
BN
Fenaughty
A M
AM
Johnson
M E
ME
D000413:Alaska; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003132:Commerce; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009339:Needles / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D010595:Pharmacists; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013594:Syringes / Q000600:supply & distribution; D013689:Telephone