So Close, Yet so Far Away

Texas law prohibits doctors from dispensing medications if their office is located within fifteen miles of a pharmacy. However, doctors without a pharmacy within fifteen miles are free to dispense medications to their patients.

The Institute for Justice (IJ) is challenging this arbitrary law. What is so magical about fifteen miles? Why are some doctors (only eight in the entire state) free to dispense medications, but most aren’t?

Bills have been introduced to remedy this injustice. But lobbying by pharmaceutical companies have stymied efforts to provide more freedom to both doctors and patients.

It would be easy to complain about “greedy” pharmaceutical companies, but they aren’t the real culprit in this scandal. The real culprit is a state government that provides benefits to some at the expense of others.

The right to property means the freedom to create, attain, use, keep, trade, and dispose of material values. If doctors want to sell medications to their patients, they have a moral right to do so. And if patients want the convenience of buying medications from their doctor, they have a moral right to do so.

The lobbying efforts of pharmaceutical companies to limit competition are deplorable. But more deplorable are the state officials who pass laws that make it illegal for individuals to trade values as they judge best. It’s easy to blame private businesses for putting political pressure on legislators. But the real villains are the legislators who use their political power to prohibit others from acting on their own judgment.