By CLAYTON PARK

A second-generation family-run pharmacy that has served the Lake City community for nearly a half-century recently took the bold step of halting operations as a conventional drugstore to become a "natural pharmacy."

On Dec. 1, Medical Service Pharmacy owner John D. Groen transferred his regular prescription files to the nearby in-store pharmacy at the Pinehurst Safeway. "They have purchased our files and our agreement is to no longer fill regular prescriptions," Groen wrote in a letter to customers.

Instead, Groen plans to operate as a specialty pharmacy, preparing custom compounded prescriptions, and selling alternative medicines, nutritional supplements, vitamins, homeopathic medicine and vaccines for travel and flu.

"This decision has come as a result of my growing interest in compounding and alternative medicine, and changes in the health care environment that make conditions difficult for the survival of independent pharmacies," wrote Groen.

In keeping with the new direction, Groen has renamed his business, MSP the Wellness Store. He says the change actually represents a return to the way his father, the late John A. Groen, did things when he started Medical Service Pharmacy in 1952.

"It was a traditional pharmacy, but my dad was also a compounder, meaning that he did a lot of custom formulas, something most pharmacies today don't do," said Groen. Compounding refers to the mixing of ingredients into a prescription product, as opposed to merely re-packaging manufactured drugs. "That's the old art of the apothecary," said Groen of compounding.

Why get a compounded prescription? Nedra Holder, a pharmacist who joined the MSP staff last year, explains: "Let's say a patient can't swallow a pill. We can take an ingredient and make it into a form that's easier to use, such as a cream, lozenge or lollipop."

Groen, who used to help out at the store as a kid, followed in his father's footsteps by earning a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Washington in 1973.

Instead of going to work for his dad, however, Groen took a job as a pharmacist with G.O. Guy Drugs, a drugstore chain. "I wanted to have some less in-bred experience," he explains.

He took over the family business in 1975 following the death of his father who was killed by an armed robber. His mother, Nell Groen, continued to work at MSP until her retirement in the late '80s, which coincided with the pharmacy's move to its current location in the Lake City Professional Center, 2611 NE 125th.

The store recently added some new decorations to go with its new identity. On the front counter is a yellow rubber duck with a sign: "Squeeze rubber ducky for service." On top of a bookcase is a toy baby duck, shown in the process of hatching. "That's me and John coming out of our shell," says Holder.

Credit Groen's 16-year-old daughter Becky for the idea. Holder says Becky told her dad: "'You need ducks in the store.' She felt a duck fit the character of where we're going."

In otherwords, a new beginning for Groen and company.