Most information here is correct except one item. A doctor can dispense medication and there is no need to go thru a pharmacy. Think about it for a moment, when you go to see a doctor for whatever reason how many times has he or she given you a promotional sample pack of meds?

Many doctors in small rural towns that are miles away from any pharmacy dispense meds on a routine basis.

I asked my personal doc about this one time and he said doctors can dispense meds from their office as the rural doc's do but they normally don't don't because of the additional costs of staff, record keeping etc.

Just thought I'd toss this out for conversations sake.