Vancouver Gets North America's First Women-Only Pharmacy

The first women-only pharmacy in North America is opening its doors tomorrow in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside at 29 West Hastings Street.

Even though the Downtown Eastside has more pharmacies per capita than any other Vancouver neighbourhood, most of the area's women residents go elsewhere for their prescription needs. The existing pharmacies--designed to be more like methodone dispensers than your friendly Shoppers--apparently turn most women residents off: According to Caryn Duncan, executive director of the Vancouver Women's Health Collective (VWHC), the current pharmacies are "quite hostile places and women don't feel safe."

Duncan came up with the idea of opening a pharmacy for women in 2006. The pharmacy itself was designed by UBC graduate students in architecture, who helped raise money for the project, too.

Called Lu's: A Pharmacy for Women--it was named after Lucette Hansen, a longtime volunteer for the VWHC--the women-only pharmacy plans to serve women and students who live and work in the area and provide a more friendly and confidential atmosphere for patrons to talk with female pharmacists.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic idea, and since you don't have to live in the Downtown Eastside to patronize Lu's, I think all Vancouver women should stop in to have a prescription filled and give them a boost: the pharmacy's profits will be re-invested in the VWHC.

What do you think of the idea of a women-only pharmacy?

UPDATED July 9 here.