Board passes tobacco ban in pharmacies.

Redrant: Does mean that that the sale of nicotine gum and nicotine patches will be planned in San Francisco pharmacies? Greg Lang

Greg -

This is a must read. Note my highlites in bold. So basically the government has the authority to tell a private business what legal products they can sell and not sell????


here --
Board passes tobacco ban in pharmacies
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
San Francisco lawmakers voted Tuesday to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco products at most pharmacies, a move that backers hope will lead to similar laws across the country.
The ban has already attracted the attention of Marin County leaders, who may push forward with their own proposal.
The ban passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on an 8-3 vote, with some supervisors predicting it would be a "first step" toward additional bans on the sale of tobacco in the city.
"Whatever we can do to make this country a smoke-free zone, we should do it," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who voted in favor of the ban first proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The law will ban the sale of all tobacco products at pharmacies in the city, including Walgreens and Rite Aid stores. Big-box stores like Costco and supermarkets like Safeway will still be allowed to sell tobacco.
Larry Meredith, director of Health and Human Services for Marin County, said officials there will watch the implementation of San Francisco's ban and have already drafted similar legislation that could go before supervisors in the fall.
Newsom's spokesman Nathan Ballard praised the San Francisco board's action. The ban is set to take effect Oct. 1.
"A pharmacy is a place you should go to get better, not to get cancer," Ballard said. Newsom would analyze the effect of the new law before expanding it to other types of stores, Ballard said.
Supervisors voting against the measure said they felt that Walgreens and Rite Aid were unfairly singled out by the ban.
"I don't see the value in driving tobacco consumers to corner stores where they aren't going to have access to smoking-cessation products," said Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who voted against the ban along with supervisors Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd.
Chu said the legislation "makes it harder for businesses to do business in San Francisco."
While the law exempts some types of stores, Public Health Director Mitch Katz, who helped draft the legislation, said the intent was to focus the ban on the "group where the case was the strongest."
"We teach our children that supermarkets and wholesale stores are places you go to buy everything. When it comes to pharmacies, I feel that our children and our teenagers get a different message," said Katz, who also suggested the ban could be broadened in the future.
Representatives of Walgreens and Rite Aid said the law lacks basic fairness.
"We believe this is about customer choice and the right of customers to find products in our stores," said Cheryl Slavinsky, a Rite Aid spokeswoman.
Walgreen Co. spokesman Michael Polzin noted that people buying cigarettes can speak to pharmacists in the store about quitting smoking and can buy smoking cessation products there.
He said the drugstore chain had not decided whether it would take legal action against the ban, but said, "We are going to review all our options."
The American Lung Association, which along with other health organizations has lobbied pharmacies across the country for voluntary bans, heralded the action in San Francisco.
"It changes the conversation from something where people of conscience act to one where a city says, 'You know what, we support healthier lifestyles in our city,' " said Serena Chen, policy director for the American Lung Association of California.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/30/BAC7121IRV.DTL