Another pharmacy chain making changes to its handling of tobacco products is Walgreens, which recently announced that while it has no plans to remove tobacco products from its stores, it will be testing out tobacco-free stores in Deerfield, Illinois, and 17 locations in the Gainesville, Florida. This comes as Walgreens continues an initiative to help adults quit smoking. For now, the company does this by making smoking cessation products accessible and available in its stores and by directing its employees to direct customers to these products. Walgreens has also made an effort to make the tobacco products it does carry less visible in some of its locations. Walgreens efforts come as the FDA named it as one of the lead violators in selling tobacco products to minors [read more here]. In February 2019, five Democratic senators urged Walgreens to stop selling tobacco products in its stores all together.
“This is unacceptable,” senators wrote in a letter addressed to Walgreen’s CEO back in February. “Given that your company is either unwilling or unable to keep tobacco products out of the hands of kids who frequent your stores, we once again write to urge you, as a health care pharmacy, to put children over profits and immediately stop selling dangerous and addictive tobacco products at your stores.”
As the war against e-cigarettes and vaping continues to ramp up as well as the FDA’s evolving stance on various smokeable products changes, the presence and handling of tobacco products in pharmacy chains can also expect to see further changes.
