Commentary Should doctors be allowed, by law, to fulfill medical prescriptions for their patients? Until recently, Montana forbade any such activity (unless their offices were located more than 10 miles away from the nearest pharmacy). The pharmacists of the Big Sky state were for many years happy with this enactment. The last thing they presumably wanted was competition from physicians, on a turf they regarded as their own private preserve. But the folks at the Institute for Justice (IJ), the sworn enemy of any and all restrictions on competition, were not happy campers. In 2020 the IJ sued Montana on behalf of several local doctors, maintaining that this law constituted a protectionist ban. What was the reaction of the Montana Pharmacy Association? You had better be sitting down for this one; it will knock your socks off! They had for the last few decades been strong advocates of this exercise …