Telephone survey of Alaskan pharmacists' nonprescription needle-selling practices

Objectives. To determine the availability of nonprescription needles and sy ringes (NS) through pharmacy sales and to assess the impact of pharmacy pol icies and municipal paraphernalia laws on pharmacists' selling practices. Design. Telephone survey of all pharmacies in Alaska's four largest cities. Setting. Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Ketchikan, Alaska. Subjects. A single pharmacist from each pharmacy represented in the cities' phone books. Main Outcome Measures. Reports of (1) pharmacies' policies and individual p harmacists' procedures regarding the nonprescription sale of NS, (2) pharma cists' selling practices, and (3) identification of conditions that may aff ect 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 practice s between a city with a paraphernalia law and cities without such laws. Log istic regression revealed pharmacists were more likely to sell NS if they w orked in chain pharmacies and estimated that a high number of other local p harmacists sell nonprescription NS. Conclusion. NS are available through nonprescription sales in Alaskan pharm acies. The majority of pharmacies have store policies that permit pharmacis ts to sell nonprescription NS, either in all cases or at their discretion. Municipal paraphernalia laws do not determine the selling practices of indi vidual pharmacists.