Essay - Smoking Ban Introduction on February 9, 2009, a New Ordinance...

Smoking Ban

Introduction

***** February 9, 200*****, a new ordin*****nce went in to affect in the city of Boston, banning cigarette sales in pharmacies. The ordinance was passed by the Boston Public Health Commission and covers only ***** city ***** Boston, not outlying cities. The sale ban is a*****her in a multi-step program ***** the city to eradicate smoking. There have also been bans on smoking in bars, cigar ***** excepted, bans on the ***** of cigarettes on college campuses and a ban on ***** sale of rolling papers anywhere in the city.

***** ***** Tobacco Sales

The regulation singles out pharmacies for the ban, under the theory that ***** represent part of the health care system and therefore should not be selling a product th*****t damages people's health. Pharmacies account for 4% of total ***** ***** tobacco products (Magee, 2008). This is against the will of the vast majority of pharmacists. However, the major corporations that run the pharmacies, CVS ***** Walgreen's, generate substantial profit from the sale of cigarettes. The total market is $65 billion, so ***** take of the ***** is estimated to be $2.6 billion. Thus, ***** city of Bos*****n felt that the ban needed to come from their end.

A survey of Boston pharmacies on the day the ban went into effect revealed ***** all had removed their ***** products. ***** CVS stores *****ed had replaced their tobacco shelves with Nicorettes and other products designed to help people break their tobacco addictions. At Walgreen's the shelving ********** used for tobacco products merely sat empty. The CVS stores ***** signs alerting their customers about the new regulations, to alleviate cus*****mer concerns and avoid customer complaints (Smith, 2009).

En*****cement of the regulations began right away, but thus far all pharmacies are compliant. ***** two major chains dominate the pharmacy industry in the ***** ***** both agreed ***** along that they would be compliant. CVS, in fact, had toyed with the idea of halting tobacco sales around the same time that Target ceased tobacco sales in 1996 (Magee, 2008).

S*****holder Analysis

***** ***** several ***** stakeholders with respect to ***** Boston ban. These are the tobacco companies, the City of Boston, consumers and the pharmacies. The pharmacies have little control ***** this situation. They ***** losing a significant component ***** their sales. While the pharmacies ***** been forced to be compliant, ********** lose a key product *****nd can do little to replace that revenue. When San Francisco implemented a similar ***** last year, Walgreen's joined with Philip Morris in a l*****wsuit ***** the city. They cont***** that they are ********** discriminated against and that other types of businesses are being favored (Gebhart, 2008). The pharmacies ***** suffer because ***** use cigarettes to bring cus*****mers ***** their stores, where those customers purchase other products. This ban creates a loss of ***** ***** as well (Ibid.).

The City of Boston's main objective is to continue its *****sault on ***** products, the ***** approved the ***** rules unanimously, indicating a strength