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Tobacco ban in pharmacies within San Francisco. Can we do more?

Opinion and Analysis



The WSJ article goes on to state, “San Francisco's tobacco sales ban is part of a broader effort among private and public health professionals to bar tobacco sales at both pharmacies and retailers with on-site health clinics. The Boston Public Health Commission last week gave its initial approval to ban tobacco products at pharmacies, including supermarkets that dispense prescription drugs. The law, which has the blessing of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, would also ban cigarette sales on college campuses.”

What do you think?

Is this a viable way to make it fair to all pharmacies and grocery stores, with respect to the San Francisco ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies but not in grocery stores that have pharmacies?

Is it a fair way to help prevent children from buying and using tobacco products, while still making it accessible for adults.

Do you have better solutions to the problem?

In any case, something more needs to be done because children still have easy access to cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and other tobacco products.

The American Heart Association (AHA ) states, "Cigarette smoking by children and teenagers in the United States is a major public health problem."

It continues, "If not controlled, later in life it [smoking] will become a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack. Among young men and women — who are otherwise at very low risk of developing coronary heart disease —cigarette smoking may cause as many as 75 percent of the cases of coronary heart disease. The longer a person smokes, the higher the risk of coronary heart disease. More than 80,000 people die each year from coronary heart diseases caused by smoking."

The AHA adds, "Most adult smokers started when they were preteens or teenagers; smoking habits in youth seem to determine lifetime cigarette consumption. There's also evidence that those who begin smoking before they're 20 [years of age] have the highest incidence and earliest onset of coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. Autopsy studies of smokers have raised questions about the effects of smoking in childhood and adolescence on the development of fatty buildups in arteries in adulthood."



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