Health Care Retail clinics make their pitch

Will care provided in a retail store really be as good as that given in a physician’s office? Can stand-alone clinics survive in a health-care system that is becoming increasingly more integrated?

Judgment call

by Jim Plagakis Reference Drug Topics Jim Plagakis, RPh It was closing time. This guy stopped me as I was about to zip his credit card for a box of Mucinex and a Combivent MDI. “Hold on.” He turned and walked away. I thought that maybe he had bolted and was about to void…

BANS: Drugstore Tobacco Sales Come Under Fire

by Ann Zimmerman reference Wall Street Journal Anti-smoking advocates are taking the battle against cigarettes to the aisles of pharmacies as well as retailers with in-store health clinics, arguing that stores promoting health care shouldn’t also be selling tobacco products. Tuesday, San Francisco’s city board of supervisors will vote on whether to bar cigarette sales at…

Pharmacy cigarette sales must end in pharmacies

Reference Drug topics/ modern medicine Daniel A. Hussar, PhD The sale of cigarettes in pharmacies is the topic of a letter from a physician in the Nov. 1 issue of Family Practice News. His letter includes the following observations: “That … chain drugstores continue to profit from the sale of cigarettes makes a mockery of…

San Francisco bans all pharmacy tobacco sales

Reference Link Drug Topics by Christine Blank After much legal wrangling, pharmacies in San Francisco can no longer carry cigarettes. Although the San Francisco Board of Supervisors ruled in 2008 that stores with pharmacies could not sell tobacco products, the ordinance did not apply to grocery stores and big-box retailers with pharmacies. San Francisco is…

150 years in American pharmacy: Bringing in traffic and taxes

Referenced from Drug Topics by Paul Ried Throughout much of 1951, taxing cigarettes was top-of-mind for many pharmacies. Local cities, states, and even the federal government passed a dizzying array of laws to tax the demon weed. Except in 1951, tobacco was not a demon weed but one of the most important sales items at…

Drugstore Tobacco Sales Under Fire

Wall Street Journal By ANN ZIMMERMAN Antismoking advocates are taking the battle against cigarettes to the aisles of pharmacies as well as retailers with in-store health clinics, arguing that stores promoting health care shouldn’t also be selling tobacco products. Bloomberg News/Landov Tuesday, San Francisco’s city board of supervisors will vote on whether to bar cigarette sales…

San Francisco Votes For New Tobacco Rules

Wall Street Journal By ANN ZIMMERMAN San Francisco is poised to become the first city in the nation to ban sales of tobacco products at pharmacies. The law, introduced by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and modeled on similar bans in eight Canadian provinces, was approved by the city’s board of supervisors in an 8-3 vote.…

Walgreen Fights Tobacco Ban

REFERENCE Wall Street Journal BY ANN ZIMMERMAN Walgreen Co. has asked a San Francisco state court to block implementation of a recently passed city ordinance banning sales of tobacco products at pharmacies, set to take effect Oct. 1. In the legal challenge, filed in California Superior court, the Deerfield, Ill., drug-store chain alleges the new law…

Pipe dream: Drug store cigarette sale bans will make smokers quit

From Drug Store Topics September 21, 2008 | By Rob Eder Just in time for the city of Boston’s proposed ban on the sale of cigarettes in drug stores, this letter landed on my desk from a Pennsylvania pharmacist (see below), who took exception to the column I wrote for the Aug. 18 issue of Drug Store…

San Francisco smokers must look elsewhere

From Drug Store News by ALARIC DEARMENT SAN FRANCISCO —Starting Oct. 1, drug store shoppers here will have to look elsewhere for their nicotine fix. San Francisco’s board of supervisors voted 8-3 Aug. 5 to give final approval to a ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies that Mayor Gavin Newsom had proposed in April, after having passed…