North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association - Raleigh, North Carolina

Just north of the northwest corner at South Wilmington and East Morgan in downtown Raleigh

Y'all. Get ready for another really short post!

The North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association. It's a professional organization for pharmacists in North Carolina, and now known as the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists. But way back when, it was established as the NCPA in 1880, as response to the NC Medical Society. See, what happened was that State Medical Board, as the Legislature was working on pharmaceutical regulation (page 14), decided to be like "Let the State Legislature handle qualifications".  Context: the North Carolina Medical Board was established about 20 years ago to regulate and license qualified doctors, but no such body existed for pharmacists at this point. So what the Medical Board (i.e., doctors) was basically doing was like "Eh, it'll be fine, let the Legislature handle it. We don't know much about the pharmacists/pharmacy industry, but it should be fine."

Except some druggists/pharmacists in Wilson, North Carolina, heard about this and were like "Look, if any group of people should establish such a licensing procedure/exam, it should be us druggists!" (see page 1 of the Convention proceedings). Yeah, I'm paraphrasing, but this is a short one, so I'm trying to make it interesting. This group of druggists sent a letter to the state circular (think newsletter) for druggists, and within three months (three!) of the letter, they gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina, for a Convention of Druggists. By the way, gathering people from all over the state of North Carolina in three months time in the late 19th century was pretty quick, especially since the majority of the state was VERY rural with VERY BAD roads (read that in Trump's voice, it's fun!).

At this Convention, on August 11, 1880, they all agreed to establish a North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was the First Convention of Druggists, and they created and authorized the Constitution and By-Laws of the newly minted Association, with the object to "limit the dispensing and sale of drugs to Pharmacists and Druggists" in the state of North Carolina (see page 5). Now, the Association has grown and changed; it is now known as the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists as of January 1, 2000. This change was the result of a merger across four organizations, to make "One Voice, One Vision" for NC Pharmacy:

1. The original North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association (mentioned in the road marker above)
2. The North Carolina Society of Health-System Pharmacists
3. The North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists
4. The North Carolina Retail Pharmacy Association

North Carolina Association of Pharmacists (Source)

The North Carolina Association of Pharmacists "exists to unite, serve and advance the profession of pharmacy for the benefits of our society." While it does not work to actually license qualified pharmacists, it is ultimately a lobbying group that heavily influences the process and technical information behind it (licensing boards are controlled by a State Board, which is established by legislation, not by the industry). The current Association is housed in Durham, North Carolina.