Marfa Meds is open again. One of the first of its kind in the state, it’s a subsidized program that allows prescription medicine to be delivered from Alpine pharmacies to Marfa customers. It closed earlier this month, when its coordinator left the job and when the grocery store that hosted it, changed ownership. There are no full-service pharmacies in Marfa. Jerry Johnson sorts small white paper bags for Marfa Meds:
Those are prescriptions. They come in bags from the three drugstores in Alpine. And then they’re checked-in here in Marfa. And then the individuals are contacted for them to come by and pick up their prescriptions. We are a Class-H pharmacy. We don’t fill prescriptions. We don’t make any comments about the drugs that are picked up.
Customer Jeannie Simpson lives on a ranch south of Marfa:
My husband and I are both retired. And so we have a fair number of medications to get. And every time we come into Marfa. That’s saving us an 80-mile round-trip to Alpine. (Reporter: Do you recall when Marfa had it’s own pharmacy?) I do, when I was a little girl we had the Rexall and then we had City Drug, but those are both long gone.
J.P Schwartz is a doctor at the Marfa Country Clinic:
The main people that are helped by this are shut-ins, people who do not drive, who don’t have the resources, and that’s always been a problem.
