The Pharmacist Who Says No to Drugs

By Bill Hogan

Ruby Gifford has come to see Armon B. Neel Jr. out of fear and perhaps desperation. Gifford, 86, hasn’t been feeling well lately, and the list of symptoms that have prompted her to come to Neel’s office in Griffin, Ga., might mark her as a hypochondriac in the eyes of many doctors. The problems run from dizzy spells and falls to osteoarthritis and back pain, from uncontrolled high blood pressure and erratic pulse rates to anxiety and depression. Then there are the skin rashes, hives and other allergic symptoms that seem to have come out of nowhere.

Gifford’s 60-year-old daughter has brought her to the Wednesday morning appointment, and the two wait anxiously in Neel’s conference room, where he meets with patients. Neel, however, isn’t a doctor. He’s a pharmacist whose specialty is determining whether people are taking the right medications—and in the right doses—for what ails them. Neel, 66, hasn’t worked behind a prescription counter since the early 1970s, when he gave up dispensing drugs for a career that would often put him on a collision course with the doctors who prescribe them.....

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