San Francisco:Tobacco ban in pharmacies set for expansion

San Francisco is poised to extend its ban on tobacco sales in drugstores to big-box stores and supermarkets with in-house pharmacies.
 ''Pharmacies should be about promoting health,'' said Supervisor Eric Mar, chief sponsor of the legislation that was passed unanimously out of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee today and will be considered by the full Board of Supervisors next week.In 2008, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to prohibit pharmacies from selling cigarettes and other tobacco products; Boston has since followed suit. At the time, supermarkets, such as Safeway, and big-box stores, such as Costco, were, at their request, exempted.
Walgreen sued the city over the tobacco ban, and the state  Court of Appeal found in June that the law appeared to be unconstitutional because it carved out an exception for some pharmacy operations while targeting others.
Closing the loophole for supermarkets and big box-stores could remedy the problem, the appeals court suggested. The original law affected 60 pharmacies; the change would add 14 more, said Dr. Mitch Katz, San Francisco's public health chief.
He said that despite concerns raised by businesses when the law was first enacted, the tobacco ban did not put drugstores out of business. He called the proposal to further restrict the sale of tobacco sound public health policy.
Source:San Francisco Chronicle