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home / 世界杯决赛2022

london drugs defends tobacco sales in b.c. drugstores as way to help smokers quit

b.c. is the only province that allows tobacco sales in stores that have pharmacies

by susan lazaruk

may 31 2022
read time 3 minute read
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a london drugs store in north vancouver. francis georgian / png
london drugs’ decision to sell tobacco in its b.c. stores is designed to target smokers with anti-smoking messages when they buy a pack of cigarettes, its chief operating officer says.
b.c. is the only province in canada to allow tobacco sales in stores with pharmacies, and is under pressure to bring in a ban.

the b.c.-based london drugs chain said it opposes a ban on sales of a legal product, even though its goal is to “stamp out smoking,” said coo clint mahlman in an emailed letter to the editor in response to a recent postmedia article about thousands signing a petition demanding b.c. ban the sale of tobacco in pharmacies.

“london drugs believes that providing anti-smoking messages and assistance at the point of purchase and access to professional counselling immediately at the point of purchase, is the only way we can help our customers reduce tobacco use,” he said.
those who buy cigarettes at london drugs are asked for id and “receive a brochure offering counselling and tips on quitting and having immediate access to trained smoking cessation pharmacists,” he said.
mahlman said that, since 2017, london drugs has conducted almost 950,000 consultations on quitting smoking and sold 17.4 million smoking-cessation products.
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when alberta banned tobacco sales from pharmacies in 2009, the sales of smoking-cessation products dropped nine per cent compared to 2008 and then fell another 13 per cent in 2010, he said. similar drops happened in manitoba and saskatchewan.
“taking tobacco out of stores with a pharmacy will drive people to corner stores and gas stations with no health-care motivation,” he said.
smoking opponents and the college of b.c. pharmacists have for years called for pharmacies to stop selling tobacco, saying it is inconsistent for companies trying to promote health and wellness to be selling a lethal product.
leo levasseur, who launched the online petition, said if pharmacists were serious about reaching smokers, they would sell tobacco at the pharmacy at the back of the store and not at the checkouts at the front.
mahlman wasn’t available for an interview.
a spokesman for rexall drugstores said they no longer sell cigarettes. requests for comment from shoppers drug mart, where tobacco policy is left to individual owners, safeway (sobeys) and save-on foods (overwaitea) weren’t returned.
seventy-one per cent of smokers bought cigarettes at a small grocery or corner store and 14 per cent at a supermarket or other kind of store, according to 2017 statistics from health canada.
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mahlman said “removing tobacco from the pharmacy did not reduce tobacco consumption in ontario, saskatchewan and alberta at that time.”
the number of cigarettes purchased between 2008 and 2019 in alberta dropped by about the same percentage as in b.c., according to health canada. alberta sales dropped to 3.22 billion cigarettes in 2019 compared with 4.37 billion in 2008, a 2.6 per cent decrease. in b.c. there were 2.5 billion cigarettes sold in 2019, compared with 3.46 billion in 2008, a 2.8 per cent drop.
over the same period, ontario sales dropped about one per cent and saskatchewan’s about 2.4 per cent.
b.c. health minister adrian dix, in the days leading up to world no tobacco day on wednesday, said b.c. is assessing its policy that allows drugstores to sell cigarettes, but also said pharmacies could help smokers quit.
“the ministry is reviewing its current policy on tobacco and vapour products sales from pharmacies,” said dix in an emailed statement. “pharmacists continue to play an important role in smoking cessation as they have the expertise and knowledge on cessation medications and can provide professional advice and education to support individuals to quit.”
while health critic years ago, dix had called on the liberal government to ban the sale of tobacco in drugstores. his statement didn’t explain why he changed his mind and he wasn’t available for an interview.

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