As of Oct. 1, 2014, CVS pharmacy has taken a stance to stop the sales of tobacco products at more than 7,600 if their stores nationwide. According to the New York Times, CVS wants to be looked at as more of healthcare providers rather than a retail business. Their motives with ending the sales of tobacco products are to better the health and well being of their customers, saying, “At CVS Caremark, we know that to make a difference, you have to do things differently. So we’re reinventing pharmacy to help people on their path to better health.”
Although cigarettes are bad for you, with the amount of tobacco products purchased daily, ending their sales could be just as detrimental as beneficial to your everyday customer. With tobacco sales being a large chunk of income, CVS estimated $2 billion in loss of sales. With the idea of tobacco sales being ended by CVS, does this mean gas stations should also end tobacco sales? In my opinion, ending the sale of tobacco products in gas stations too would just be taking it too far. Cutting off sales from CVS is harsh enough for cigarette smokers, so or now, leaving tobacco sales in gas stations is the least society could do. The risk of cigarettes is vast yet people still continue to smoke them. They have been around for decades and cutting of their sales all in one year could cause uproar amongst the smoker society.
Millions of dollars goes into advertisements both promoting cigarette sales and showing the negative effects of smoking. Out of all the unhealthy items on the market for people to purchase and intake, cigarettes are the ones that are almost impossible to not know that they’re detrimental to your health.
According to student Morgan Dow, “Cigarette companies do an awesome job making people aware of how bad they are for you. They even have those scary commercials to show the long term effects of it. People have to know they’re not good for you; they just do it anyway.” Each cigarette package has a surgeon’s general warning listing the issues that come from smoking cigarettes. According to FDA.gov,“The Tobacco Control Act requires the following nine textual warning statements to appear on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements.” These include: “WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive. WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children. WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease. WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer. WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease. WARNING: Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby. WARNING: Smoking can kill you. WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers. WARNING: Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.”
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