CVS Caremark’s landmark decision to end the sale of tobacco products in its stores was announced Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), an appropriate outlet given the AMA’s 50 years of anti-tobacco efforts.
CVS Caremark Chief Medical Officer Troyen A. Brennan, MD, announced the pharmacy’s decision to halt tobacco sales in a JAMA Viewpoint.
“Making cigarettes available in pharmacies in essence ‘renormalizes’ the product by sending the subtle message that it cannot be all that unhealthy if it is available for purchase where medicines are sold,” the article states.
The AMA House of Delegates issued a policy in 2009 opposing the sale and marketing of tobacco products in pharmacies. See more about the AMA’s work to end tobacco use in an infographic.
“It is a remarkable commitment of a U.S. company to the health of the nation,” JAMA Editor-in-Chief Howard Bauchner, MD, said of CVS Caremark’s decision. “I could not be more pleased that JAMA could participate in the announcement.”
The AMA recently highlighted the 50th anniversary of the seminal 1964 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health. An estimated 8 million lives have been saved since then as public health efforts have cut smoking rates in half, according to a study in last month’s special JAMA theme issue.
“We commend CVS for putting public health ahead of their bottom line and recognizing the need for pharmacies to focus on supporting health and wellness instead of contributing to disease and death caused by tobacco use,” AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD, said in a statement. “We are hopeful that CVS’s decision to end the sale of tobacco products will spur other pharmacies to follow suit to help improve the nation’s health.”
