Health experts praise the CVS tobacco cut

Because of a new CVS Pharmacy policy, a little tobacco will be removed from Tobacco Road.

The national pharmacy chain will stop stocking tobacco products by Oct. 1, according to a statement issued by the company last week.

Company executives said they hope removing tobacco products from store shelves will promote better health.

“Tobacco products have no place in a setting where health care is delivered,” said Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS, in the announcement.

CVS is the first major national pharmacy chain to stop selling tobacco products.

Kurt Ribisl, a professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health who studies tobacco use, said the absence of tobacco products from CVS shelves will remove some of the temptation for smokers to buy cigarettes.

“I think it’s a brilliant move on their part,” he said. “I really applaud their leadership in this.”

CVS also announced plans to initiate a nationwide program this spring to help people quit smoking.

Pam Seamans, the executive director of the North Carolina Alliance for Health, said CVS’s decision could be beneficial to people in the state.

“As people walk in and see that there are no tobacco products available, maybe it will get them thinking twice that they need to quit,” she said.

CVS estimated the company would lose $2 billion in revenue from consumers of tobacco products, according to the press release.

A CVS opened on Franklin Street in November. The drugstore joined Sutton’s Drug Store and Walgreens in competing for the business of UNC students.

UNC senior Michael Maples, who said he smokes, said CVS on Franklin Street could feel the consequences of the company’s decision.

He said CVS lost a competitive edge in gaining potential customers.

But CVS maintains that it is making the right decision for the company and its customers.

“Every day we are helping millions of patients manage chronic conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes,” Merlo said in the release.

“And all of these conditions are made worse by smoking.”

In 2014, 18 percent of adults smoke cigarettes compared to 42 percent in 1965, according to the press release.

But CVS said that smoking still causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

Seamans said there is more the state could do to lower the number of smoking-related deaths.

She said the state should implement a higher tax to discourage consumers from buying cigarettes. She also said educating children in schools about the harmful effects of tobacco would help lower the number of smokers in the state.

“This is a step that the business community has taken to address smoking, but there are many other policy choices that the state of North Carolina could be making,” she said.

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