Drug samples are a staple of pharma- ceutical marketing. The drug industry argues, quite logically, that samples are useful to treat patients who lack the funds to purchase medications. Yet some reformers have called for drug samples to be banned, an idea that has received a decidedly mixed reception. A small body of research has investigated the topic of drug samples, including a recent study that examined changes in prescriptions when samples of brand- name statins, levothyroxine, and SSRIs were removed from an internal medicine clinic in Iowa. Over the 180-day period in which samples were removed, generic prescriptions increased by 23% for statins, 10% for SSRIs, and 3% for levothyroxine (Miesner AR et al., Arch Intern Med 2009;169:1241-1242). In another study, a university-based internal medicine clinic moved, leaving its sample closet inaccessible for nine months. During this time, the rate of generic pre- scribing for uninsured patients increased from 12% to 30%, though there was no change in generic prescribing for Medicaid patients (Miller DP et al., South Med J 2008;101:888-893).