|
WHAT'S NEWCOLAB's Benefits of Tobacco Free PharmaciesWhy Do We Need Tobacco Free Pharmacies?Tobacco-Free Pharmacies—Into the FutureClearing the Shelves of a Deadly ProductColab Expands!The COLAB Tobacco Free Pharmacy Project has expanded its campaign for tobacco free pharmacies to Riverside an San Bernardino Counties. COLAB is now working with pharmacy professionals, pharmacy customers, community organizations, health departments and interested residents in communities throughout the Inland Empire. Our goal is to obtain municipal policies to end the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies. Similar policies have been successfully adopted in San Francisco and Boston. Tobacco free pharmacies are also being promoted throughout Los Angeles County. In addition, we are working with retail and other private business owners and managers to promote smoke-free entryways through our “Healthy Path” campaign. New partnership with RESPECTRESPECT (Resources & Education Supporting People Everywhere Controlling Tobacco) is a Prop 99-funded project that is partnering with COLAB to work in the Los Angeles County communities of Glendale, Burbank and/or Compton. RESPECT will work with County Of Los Angeles Breath Tobacco-Free Pharmacy Policy Project to facilitate the adoption and implementation of policies or resolutions that advance the prohibition or regulation of tobacco sales, advertising or promotions in independent and chain pharmacies. Conducting the following policy activities will be RESPECT’s assignment in Los Angeles County:
Contact Us at: RESPECT Policy Option Analysis of Pharmacy ResolutionsChristine Fenlon COLAB County of Los Angeles BREATH Over the past several years, staff with the COLAB project and earlier projects such as BREATH and the Prescription for change have had three separate discussions with staff members of the Technical Assistance Legal Center (TALC) Project, including Ed Bolen, Randy Kline and Robin Salsburg regarding tobacco-free pharmacies and the issue of proposing pharmacy resolutions vs. pharmacy ordinances. In the last 12 months, aconsensus has emerged that a resolution strategy to promote tobacco-free pharmacies is currently the best way to proceed. Behind this consensus is one primary, unanswered question: can a legally reasonable distinction be made between pharmacies and other types of retail stores that stock and sell tobacco products that would allow pharmacies to be treated differently than the other retail environments? In other words, is it legally defensible to prohibit the sale of tobacco in one kind of retail environment (pharmacies) and not prohibit the sale of this product in other retail environments (grocery stores, gas stations, etc.)? Since the answer to this question is uncertain at best, the resolution was chosen as a legislative vehicle to use to promote the idea of such a ban without running afoul of constitutionally required equal treatment principles. Passage of a resolution is a recommendation by city or county government to the pharmacy owners, both chain-type and independent drug stores, to remove all tobacco from the shelves and cease and desist from tobacco advertising in their store. At least one city which has passed a resolution has indicated they may revisit this issue and attempt to get an ordinance passed; but would like to delay doing so until they are certain it would pass constitutional equal treatment requirements. The advice of tobacco control advocates in the legal field is to forego the ordinance process until it can be tested in a city that would be willing to defend the action in court. The question remains, however, can a legally reasonable distinction be made between pharmacies and other types of retail stores that stock and sell tobacco products. Many tobacco control and public health advocates believe there is a valid distinction that can be drawn among different types of retail environments, based partly upon how they market themselves to the public. Pharmacies promote themselves as and are viewed by the public to be health care outlets, unlike gas stations or grocery stores and other tobacco retailers. The public relies on pharmacies to provide items needed to keep themselves healthy and to help the public avoid preventable risks of death and disease. The message sent by the sale of tobacco in pharmacies is that tobacco can’t be all that serious to good health. In addition, to sell the very means for creating preventable disease alongside shot-term treatments for symptoms of that disease seems hypocritical. An example of a similar business sector that took action to avoid the perception of hypocrisy and avoid a terrible blow to its credibility as providers of good health can be found in the voluntary prohibition of all sales of tobacco products from hospitals and other medical facilities. For now, in regard to pharmacies advocates and legal advisors agree that we are in a period for persuasion through passage of resolutions rather than striving for legally untested mandatory ordinances. COLAB – County of Los Angeles BREATH, A Project of the American Lung Association |
 |