CDC Poll Finds Most Consumers Against Pharmacy Tobacco Sales

ATLANTA — A new survey has found that consumers want pharmacies to get out of tobacco sales.

According to a new poll, two-thirds of consumers don't want pharmacies to be able to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products. The findings, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), concluded that the sales send the wrong message, the Washington Examiner reported.

"Selling tobacco products, the leading preventable cause of death and disease, goes against the important and growing role pharmacies play in Americans' well-being," said CDC Director Tom Frieden.

The web-based survey of 4,269 adults found that more than 66 percent were strongly or somewhat in favor of outlawing tobacco sales. Nearly half of cigarette smokers and nearly half of tobacco users who don't smoke cigarettes also support such a change, the report added.

According to the CDC, a small amount of states and localities prohibit tobacco sales in pharmacies, including 134 municipalities in California and Massachusetts.

The new findings come exactly two years after CVS Health, then known as CVS Caremark, stopped selling tobacco products in its more than 7,800 locations across the United States. CVS officially exited the tobacco retailing business in September 2014.

It also comes as shareholders in Walgreens Co. and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility filed a shareholder proposal requesting that the board of directors review the risks of tobacco sales in Walgreens pharmacies, as CSNews Online previously reported.

A separate resolution requesting disclosure of lobbying expenditures was also filed. 

The resolutions are expected to appear on the company ballot to be voted on by all shareholders at the Walgreens annual meeting on Jan. 26.