The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7248 p661
10 May 2003

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Essential reading for all pharmacists who work with drug misusers

'Drug misuse and community pharmacy', edited by Janie Sheridan and John Strang. Pp viii+216. Price £19.95. London: Taylor & Francis; 2003. ISBN 0 415 28290 X

I have enjoyed working with pharmacists since coming to realise that they help drug misusers that other service providers cannot reach. I immediately found an enthusiastic bunch of professionals to whom drug misusers owe a great debt of gratitude. That was nearly 15 years ago, when little was known or understood about the possibilities or practicalities of developing pharmacy-based services (at least among those of us outside the profession).

This ignorance has since been remedied, not least by the editors of, and contributors to, this excellent book. The contents include reviews of pretty well everything published about the subject up to 2002, with a highly desirable United Kingdom focus. International and historical perspectives are also covered, and the editors even allow themselves three pages of crystal ball gazing.

I am not given to gushing, but all pharmacists who work with drug misusers should read this book and anybody involved in educating pharmacists should recommend it to their students.

Legible, literate, comprehensive and only 200 pages — who could ask for more?

Andrew McBride