Tobacco-free pharmacies: can we extend the ban?

Like any self-respecting public health official, it was my lifelong dream to be sued by a tobacco company. I got my wish in 2008. At that time I was the Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and we became the first locality to ban the sale of tobacco at pharmacies. Phillip Morris USA, Inc. promptly filed suit in the United States District Court to overturn the ban. Their lawsuit claimed that the ban interfered with their first amendment rights to communicate with their customers. But the ban in no way limited advertisements or speech about tobacco within pharmacies; you simply could not sell tobacco products. The court denied their petition. A second lawsuit brought by Walgreen’s was resolved with the county broadening the ban to include big box stores and supermarkets that had pharmacies—these stores had not been included in the original ban. The fact that San Francisco’s ban was legally upheld provides a path for other localities to ban the sale of tobacco in their pharmacies. Indeed, in addition to San Francisco, the sale of tobacco in pharmacies is banned in Boston, Newton, Needham, Uxbridge (all in Massachusetts), as well as in the City of Richmond and in the unincorporated areas of Santa Clara, both in California.