Pharmacist

WASHINGTON - Let's say you join the Army. You go through basic training and are sent to Iraq. One day, your unit comes under fire. Everybody shoots back except you. When your commanding officer demands to know why, you explain that as a Christian, you have moral objections to killing people. I'd wager most of us would think you a couple companies short of a full battalion. If you agree, then you're going to love - by which I mean, hate - what's happening with your local pharmacist. Well, maybe not your personal pharmacist.

Dixie Leikach Pharmacist and pharmacy owner; Finksburg Pharmacy, Finksburg Age: 35 Years in business: 12, the past year and a half as a pharmacy owner. Salary: $100,000 before taxes. The median salary is $94,434 for a pharmacist in Baltimore, according to Salary.com. How she started: Her mother first suggested pharmacy as a career. She researched the field to earn a Girl Scout badge and realized that she liked it. She completed two years of pre-pharmacy studies at Salisbury University and worked at a pharmacy part time.

In a close vote, the Senate defeated a bill yesterday that would have permitted pharmacists to dispense so-called "morning-after" emergency contraception without a prescription. After lengthy testimony, the 21-25 vote shocked sponsor Sharon M. Grosfeld, a Montgomery County Democrat. Two sponsors of the bill - Democrats Gloria G. Lawlah of Prince George's and Edward J. Kasemeyer of Howard County - cast dissenting votes. "I'm very disappointed," Grosfeld said. "It was a total shock. I think that maybe some senators were concerned about the right-wing movement in their district and were concerned about their own re-elections."

David P. Tenberg, a retired Baltimore pharmacist and animal lover, died Sunday at College Manor in Lutherville of complications from a fall he suffered several years ago. He was 90. Mr. Tenberg was born in Baltimore, the son of Russian immigrant parents, and was raised in the Park Heights and Pimlico neighborhoods. He graduated from City College in 1932 and from the University of Maryland Pharmacy School in 1936. Mr. Tenberg, a longtime Park Heights resident who had lived in the Lutherville retirement home since 2002, retired from the White Cross Pharmacy in 1980.

2 from Mount Airy charged with theft of prescription drugs Carroll County sheriff's deputies arrested a Mount Airy man and woman Sunday on charges related to the alleged theft of OxyContin and other prescription drugs from the pharmacy where one of them was employed. Authorities said Tiffany Lind Reese, 19, of Woodville Road and Kevin Lee Adkins, 25, of Boyers Mill Road were charged with the theft of OxyContin from the Rite Aid Pharmacy in the 400 block of E. Ridgeville Road in Mount Airy, possession of the drug, and conspiracy.

PHILADELPHIA - Federal officials in Philadelphia charged three pharmacists and two doctors yesterday with illegally selling hundreds of thousands of pills, including popular medications Prilosec, Celebrex and Prozac, that had been handed out as promotional free samples by drug companies. The samples were sold in retail pharmacies in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, Pa., federal prosecutors say. Four other individuals - two of them drug company representatives - were charged this year in federal court in Philadelphia with selling drug samples for cash.

William Weiner, a retired pharmacist who managed a Read's drug store in downtown Baltimore, died of a heart attack Dec. 8 at Sinai Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 82. Born in Baltimore and raised on Luzerne Avenue, he was a 1940 graduate of Patterson Park High School, where he won the Best Male Student award. After earning a degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, he served in the Army during World War II as a pharmacist in the Pacific. After the war, he became a retail pharmacist and rose within Read Drug and Chemical to become a manager of its store at Howard and Lexington streets.

Harvey Edwin Basik, a World War II veteran and retired pharmacist, died of lung cancer Monday at his Fallstaff home in Northwest Baltimore. He was 78. Born in New York City, he moved to Baltimore's Park Circle area at age 12. He graduated from City College in 1943. At 17, he joined the Army Air Forces and served in the Pacific. A tail gunner on a B-29, he flew numerous missions and was credited with shooting down enemy aircraft. Twice he survived forced landings on Iwo Jima. After the war, he earned a degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Nathan I. Gruz, a retired pharmacist and a former director of the state's pharmaceutical association, died of complications from a stroke Saturday at Northwest Hospital Center. The Mount Washington resident was 85. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, he and his parents fled persecution of Jews. They walked in the snow across the Polish border and moved to Baltimore in the early 1920s, family members said. Raised on St. Ambrose Avenue, he attended the old Robert E. Lee School and was a 1936 graduate of City College.

AN ILLNESS prompted Smita Patel, a registered pharmacist, to seek an alternative route to good health. After a surgery in 1990, the Highland resident said she struggled with poor health. "My mother wanted me to go back to my roots and apply Indian medicine," Patel said. She began Ayurvedic treatment with herbs and supplements sent to her from her doctor in India. Eventually, her health returned, and in 1996, Patel went on to study Ayurvedic healing -- an Eastern system based on lifestyle, diet and herbal remedies -- in India and the United States.