States Urge Retail Giants With Pharmacies to Stop Selling Tobacco Products

ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
MARCH 16, 2014
The New York Times
The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, and others have called for retailers to follow the lead of CVS, which has said it will take tobacco products off its shelves by October.
More than two dozen attorneys general sent letters on Sunday to five of the country’s largest retailers, encouraging them to stop selling tobacco products in stores that also have pharmacies, which would follow the example CVS Caremark set with its announcement earlier this year that it would stop selling such products in its drugstores.
The letters were sent to Rite Aid, Walgreen, Kroger, Safeway and Walmart, five companies that are among the biggest pharmacy retailers in the country.
“There is a contradiction in having these dangerous and devastating tobacco products on the shelves of a retail chain that services health care needs,” the letters said. Stopping the sale of tobacco products, they continued, “would effectively bring us full circle, back from the time when a tobacco manufacturer could advertise that “more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette” to a time when cigarettes simply cannot be purchased from a business that sells products prescribed by doctors.
In February, Larry J. Merlo, chief executive of CVS Caremark, said that the sale of tobacco products was “inconsistent with our purpose.” The company, which is the largest drugstore chain in the country in overall sales, has been moving increasingly toward becoming a health care provider, offering more mini-clinics, for example, rather than just an array of pills and toiletries.
The group of attorneys general, led by Eric T. Schneiderman of New York and Mike DeWine of Ohio, represents 28 states and territories, including New Hampshire, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Utah, Puerto Rico and Guam.
“Pharmacies and drugstores, which increasingly market themselves as a source for community health care, send a mixed message by continuing to sell deadly tobacco products,” Mr. Schneiderman said in an email. “The fact that these stores profit from the sale of cigarettes and tobacco must take a back seat to the health of New Yorkers and customers across the country.”
The letters do not mention any potential legal action if stores decline to institute a ban; they simply urge the retailers to follow CVS’s lead. But a person with knowledge of the group’s thinking said that if the retailers did not act voluntarily, a push for reform or litigation could be a step down the road.
The letters also did not address the sale of electronic cigarettes, nicotine products that are expanding rapidly in sales and reach. Some argue that e-cigarettes might be a gateway for nonsmokers to pick up a cigarette habit, while others say it is the most effective way to quit. The Food and Drug Administration is deciding whether and how to regulate the product. Even before its announcement last month, CVS did not sell e-cigarettes.
Since the CVS announcement, none of the other companies have shown much interest in following suit. Last week, before the letters were sent, a spokesman for Walgreen highlighted the company’s program for those trying to quit smoking, but declined to comment on whether the company was considering doing away with selling tobacco products. A spokesman for Kroger said that the company believed in customer choice for its adult consumers.
CVS estimated last month that the decision would cost it an estimated $2 billion in sales, not only in tobacco products themselves but other items like gum that customers pick up incidentally. The company’s overall sales in 2012, the most recent year available, were $123 billion, so the effect should be relatively small.
Nonetheless, public health officials cheered CVS’s choice and hoped that others would soon follow.
“Their decision to stop selling tobacco products in their pharmacies is a courageous, right-minded, smart decision,” said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We’re hoping it becomes a trend.”