1. The Beginning of the End of Cigarettes for
Sale in Pharmacies?
Submitted by Anne Landman on October 2, 2008 - 3:32pm
ethics
health
tobacco
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On October 1, 2008, the city of San Francisco put a law into effect that
prohibits the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies. Walgreens drug store chain and Altria/Philip
Morris have filed lawsuits against the city over the measure. In a September 30, 2008 statement
about the new law, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom related the city's simple rationale:
"Pharmacies should be places where people go to get better, not where people go to get cancer."
Familiar corner drug store chains like Rite Aid and Walgreens have long cultivated an image of
being all about health. Their web sites feature photos of friendly-looking pharmacists in white
coats ready to help us with our health care needs. The Rite Aid company Web site tells us they
are "committed to the healthcare needs of our customers." CVS says its vision is to "strive to
improve the quality of human life" by making "high-quality health and pharmacy services safe"
and easy to access. Walgreens says it stands ready to help people by supplying "health and
wellness products" and health information. If all this makes you feel that these drugstore chains
have your best interests at heart, it's certainly by design. But don't be taken in too easily.
Pharmacies trade on their image of being trustworthy and concerned about peoples' health. They
are among people's most respected sources of health care information, right after doctors and
nurses. Given all this, isn't it odd that pharmacies continue to sell cigarettes, long recognized as
one of the most common causes of heart disease and fatal cancers in the world today? Cigarettes
have resided on pharmacy shelves for decades, to the point that most people pay little or no
attention to them. But when you start to consider this issue, there is clearly something

2. incongruous about selling cigarettes alongside asthma inhalers, cough remedies and prescription
medications. The very presence of cigarette displays in drug stores sends a disingenuous
message, particularly to kids, about the health hazards of cigarettes. Selling cigarettes in retail
outlets devoted to improving human health is a subtle but powerful way to preserve the social
acceptability of smoking. The profits that drug store chains derive from cigarette sales helps the
industry maintain influence over large corporate drug chains, who have in the past served
cigarette makers well as allies for their issues.
Tobacco Companies and Drug Stores: A Long and Close
Partnership
Newport cigarette display in a Rite Aid store in Concord,
CA, April 1998. Note "Teen People" magazine immediately below display
It isn't immediately obvious to the general public, but drug stores and tobacco companies have a
long history of helping advance each others' interests.
In the 1970s, the Tobacco Institute (TI) engaged drug stores to help defend cigarette makers in
the "smoking and health controversy." A decade after the landmark 1964 Surgeon General's
report officially declared smoking a known cause of cancer and other serious diseases, public
concern started growing about the health effects of secondhand tobacco smoke on nonsmokers.
A confidential 1977 memo to William Kloepfer of the Tobacco Institute from Institute president
Horace R. Kornegay discusses the possibility of enlisting the Walgreens Drugstore chain to help
the Institute promote disinformation about the link between secondhand smoke and disease:
"Curtis Judge...told me about [a] meeting with David C. Carlson, manager of News and
Information Services for Walgreen Drugs. ... Carlson expressed interest in being of assistance to

3. the tobacco industry in getting the true word put about ... Curt suggested that I call Mr. Carlson
which I have done. He indicated a real interest in being of every possible assistance to us ... I
further told him that I would call him in about two weeks and that we would agree upon a
mutually convenient time and place to meet and discuss what and how he and his company could
be of help."
The Tobacco Institute pursued their plan, sending a letter to Walgreens describing how another
market chain had helped TI by distributing a pamphlet called "Smoker or Nonsmoker" that
reassured the public that there was no link at all between secondhand smoke and illness. The
Institute proposed Walgreens do the same, at TI expense. The pamphlet, produced by the TI,
reassured the public that "growing scientific research provides strong evidence that tobacco
smoke does not affect nonsmokers' health."
Walgreens was eager to help the Institute, and even proposed using their position as a "health
center" to benefit the tobacco industry in such a campaign. A Walgreens representative wrote
back to the Institute saying,