Tobacco-Free Pharmacies

What people in the Capital Region are saying. . .

Online Letter to the Editor, May 2, The Gazette
Saturday, May 2, 2009

Tobacco products in pharmacies are sending mixed messages
In Michael Gormley’s April 21 AP article, “State eyes ban on drug store cigarette sales,” on New York State’s proposed ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies, opponents to the proposed ban of tobacco sales in pharmacies miss the mark by arguing that the ban impedes a pharmacy’s ability to determine and promote their own message.

The prevailing public image of pharmacies, a perception reinforced by their own marketing, is that they are associated with good health. The sale of tobacco products in pharmacies links them to health-related products and implicitly sends the message that it is not so bad to use tobacco.

The American Pharmaceutical Association House of Delegates has long recommended that tobacco products not be sold in pharmacies. More than 95 percent of pharmacists oppose tobacco sales on ethical grounds and because it contradicts the pharmacist’s code of ethics “. . . to avoid actions that compromise dedication to the best interests of patients.”

New York State smokers can access free resources to help them quit by calling the New York Smokers’ Quitline (1-866-NY-QUITS). Unfortunately, individuals taking steps to free themselves from tobacco addiction, the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States, are faced with racks of cigarettes and chew tobacco when they go to the pharmacy to get nicotine replacement products or pick up prescription cessation medications. The visual impact of tobacco products and the insidious and cunning advertising of the tobacco industry undermines quit attempts and encourages relapse.

Cigarette smoking kills 25,000 New Yorkers a year. If the deadly reality of tobacco addiction is not a compelling enough argument for opponents to the proposed ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies, perhaps a financial one is. New Yorkers spend $8.2 billion tax dollars each year to treat tobacco-related diseases.
Supporting the proposed ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies will send the clear message that tobacco is not a product that is in any way associated with good health and will reinforce the efforts of New York state to assist those individuals who are trying to quit using tobacco.

Deya Greer
Albany
The writer is program coordinator for Schenectady County Tobacco-Free Healthy Schools for the New York State Tobacco Control Program.

Letters to the Editor, May 1, The Gazette
Friday, May 1, 2009

Banning cigarette sales in pharmacies is eminently sensible
The April 22 editorial [“Don’t ban cigarette sales in drugstores”] regarding the Gazette’s support for continuing to allow pharmacies to sell tobacco really surprised me.

It compared this important piece of public health law to “overreaching laws that trample personal freedoms and make life more difficult for businesses.” It also stated, “It’s stupid, simple-minded policy making.”

Well, if the Gazette had done its homework it would have found out that the United Kingdom, France and Canada have already implemented this “simple-minded policy,” banning the sale of tobacco, a product that causes harm and death when used as intended, in all their pharmacies. The province of Ontario has even had this ban in place since 1993. These countries understand that when tobacco products are less accessible, fewer people will smoke and their communities will be healthier.

What is stopping pharmacies and our state legislators from putting the health of our community and the welfare of our children before profits? How can a pharmacy, a place where people go to get healthy, display, front and center, a product that causes harm? It is important that we send a consistent message to our youth about the dangers of smoking. We can’t tell them that smoking cigarettes is bad and at the same time permit them to walk into any CVS, Rite Aid or Walgreens and see the large, colorful displays of tobacco products right behind the counter.

This makes cigarettes seem as benign as the candy and magazines that line the front of the counter, neither of which, when used as intended, will cause death and disease.

Judy Rightmyer
Burnt Hills