We’ve all seen the statistics and the anti-tobacco commercials that make you cringe. Smoking cigarettes is essentially as stigmatized as shooting heroin among our generation (“millennials” if you wanna be annoying about it). It’s become extremely common to light a cigarette at a party and have it knocked out of your fingers within the minute with an accompanying impromptu intervention. Even the blackout drunks in Midtown recognize the harm (well, most of the time). As America becomes more accepting of marijuana, we’re also becoming less tolerant of tobacco smoke — most notably, cigarettes.
Surgeon generals’ warnings, public service announcement campaigns and public policy changes over the past half decade have all contributed to reaching an all-time low number of cigarette smokers in the U.S., yet it’s still a battle against the tobacco lobby. We can all agree smoking is bad and provides no health benefits, right? So when I heard CVS plans to stop all sales of tobacco products by October, I thought to myself, “WAIT! That makes so much sense.”
CVS executive Larry J. Merlo stated “We came to the decision that cigarettes and providing healthcare just don’t go together in the same setting.” It’s a good ol’ fashioned boycott, people. If you don’t want people to use a product, don’t sell it. Corporations have always made their views public, as evidenced by the outpouring of LGBT support at the beginning of the Sochi Olympics, and tobacco use should be no different. In a world where cancer prevention takes center stage of the health world, it’s a surprise that the government hasn’t gone all the way, making cigarettes illegal.
Tobacco isn’t that great and is a surefire way to give yourself a multitude of health problems. Second-hand smoke is rude and as dangerous (if not more so) as smoking yourself. Smoking in almost any public, indoor space has been banned, the UF campus is tobacco-free and, where it is okay to smoke, smokers are banished to the “smoking area” to stand in shame as people judge them (we all do it subconsciously) for their poor health choices.
The largest drugstore in the country will stop selling cigarettes, which will make it more inconvenient for millions of Americans to get their fix. But, truly, it’s the statement that CVS is making that’s most important. Losing an estimated $2 billion in sales, CVS has made it clear that protecting their customers’ health is more important than the money they make on harming it.
If retail chains join in and stop selling cigarettes too, they could be a thing of the past. Imagine a world where not a single retain chain sells tobacco products. Smokers will have to scrounge for their cigarettes at sketchy gas stations in the middle of nowhere, and those corner stores that always make you ask, “Who actually goes in there?” Those who are already hooked would probably go out of their way, but luring in new smokers would be even more difficult that it already is.
Just like Trader Joe’s won’t sell you food from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because they don’t want you eating them, CVS won’t sell you cigarettes. It’s using retail to make serious changes. Really only the fashion industry follows this principal. Neiman Marcus won’t sell you jorts because, as a company, they decided you should not wear them because they’re stupid (I hope I’ve offended any readers who wear jorts). Certain stores also give military discounts as a small token of appreciation for our troops.
If they follow CVS’s lead, stores have a chance to help improve America’s health.
Featured photo courtesy of: Etsy
