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Although many pharmacies sell natural health products (NHPs), there is no clear definition as to the roles and responsibilities (if any) of pharmacists with respect to these products.

The purpose of this study was to explore pharmacy and stakeholder leaders' perceptions of pharmacists' professional NHP roles and responsibilities.

Semistructured key informant interviews were conducted with pharmacy leaders (n=17) and stakeholder (n=18) leaders representing consumers, complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, conventional health care practitioners, and industry across Canada.

All participants believed that a main NHP responsibility for pharmacists was safety monitoring. One challenge identified in the interviews was pharmacists' general lack of NHP knowledge. Stakeholder leaders did not expect pharmacists to be experts on NHPs, rather that …