Posted on 09/23/2002 1:49:31 PM PDT by SheLion
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP- In many local pharmacies, customers can purchase everything from cold medicine to candy bars. They can also buy cigarettes, a practice Dr. Vernon Daly wants stopped.
He says tobacco kills 14,000 New Jersey residents annually and has no place in a health setting.
"If pharmacies today say they won't sell tobacco because of health reasons, a lot more people would stop smoking," said Daly yesterday at a Celebration of Tobacco-Free Pharmacies Friday in front of Rancocas Hospital on Sunset Road.
Daly is the president of the Heureka Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Burlington Township.
The seminar was organized to recognize pharmacies that don't carry tobacco products and to encourage residents to pressure the pharmacies that do.
"The time has come when we tell the pharmacies that they can no longer fill the prescription for tobacco addiction," said Daly to an audience of about 20.
The program was part of a joint effort by the Heureka Center and NJBreathes, a coalition of organizations in the state that works to curb the effects of smoking in the state.
As part of the event, Daly handed out copies of the second edition of the New Jersey Tobacco Free Pharmacy Directory. The directory lists 16 independent pharmacies in Burlington County that do not sell tobacco products.
Statewide, about 141 pharmacies are tobacco free, Daly said.
Larry Downs, director of NJBreathes, encouraged residents to protest at the grassroots level at their local pharmacies. "Why should you be able to get your chemotherapy medicines in the same place you can get a cancer-causing agent?" he asked.
At the close of the program, Daly encouraged representatives from tobacco-free pharmacies in the state to display "Tobacco Free Network" signs in their store windows.
He also asked them to display in their shops anti-smoking posters.
This Doctor is pretty high on himself!
Then, if the FDA regulates tobacco products, they will be back in the Drug Stores. I sure pray we never see THAT!
I support this guy 100%.
I was wondering about that when I read this:
"The time has come when we tell the pharmacies that they can no longer fill the prescription for tobacco addiction,"
Control and Restrict. That's all the anti's know. Control and Restrict.
Yes, I smoke.
Wow, pretty harsh words for a fellow Freeper but I don't think IIIBay is an award presented to someone for achievement.
Bingo. This how such things should be done.
So what is the word of the Surgeon General? Chopped liver?
Maybe not but the people he's hanging with all do.
NJBreathes - "Our activities focus on altering the social norm of tobacco acceptance that the tobacco industry has nurtured. Tobacco is an addictive, health damaging product that causes more New Jersey deaths each year than AIDS, illegal drug use, violence, fires, homicides, suicides and vehicular accidents combined.
Some of the organizations that belong to NJBreathes - American Cancer Society, New Jersey Division, Inc., American Heart Association, American Lung Association of New Jersey, New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP), University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, and the Black Men's Health Project Network.
And finally - Funding for "NEW JERSEY BREATHES" is provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Center for Tobacco Free Kids and the contributions of member organizations. New Jersey Breathes is part of the national SmokeLess States Program administered by the American Medical Association.
Being able to buy cigarettes in pharmacies didn't stop me from quitting cigarettes years ago.
If that doctor wants to do something for mankind, he should try to invent a safe cigarette.
That way I can go back to smoking--like a chimney!!!
What a dream world this guy must live in.
Or, maybe he's right. A lot of smokers smoke because they reason, "All that talk about tobacco being bad must be a big lie. Otherwise, they wouldn't sell it at the pharmacy." Yeah, that's it; Walgreens is killing people!</sarcasm>
The lawmakers are screaming because they are losing the taxes from cigarettes over the Internet, then along comes some knock head telling drug stores to lose the cigarettes. Why should any business refuse to sell a legal product? If they were selling weed under the counter I could understand it. But tobacco is LEGAL! Hello!
Just like restaurant smoking bans: smokers don't go anymore, and that takes a toll on their revenue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.