title: Forensic pharmacy: can you prove it?
abstract: Forensic science is the acquisition, analysis, and application of scientific data to provide the legal system with answers to questions of interest. Pharmacy fills a forensic niche. Most pharmacists work in forensics part-time at their regular job or moonlight. A rare few work full-time. Most often, forensic pharmacists work as consultants to attorneys, claims adjustors, detectives/investigators, and other forensic specialists. These pharmacists review cases much like a clinical pharmacist or pharmacy manager would review a clinical challenge or administrative problem, but with an eye to the specific legal issues. Pharmacists' expert testimony has traditionally been offered in either therapeutics and human pharmacology or pharmacy practice. New specialty areas include drug-induced violence and death investigations. Deaths in long-term care facilities constitute their own category, and every state has its own approach. The law and science consider evidence quite differently, and sometimes, final verdicts surprise scientists.
authors.affiliation: University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Jeannette Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wick
mesh_terms: D005104:Expert Testimony; D044707:Forensic Sciences; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D010595:Pharmacists; D014754:Violence