Tobacco Sale

susiestar

Roll With It
Do any of the smokers/tobacco users here know of the major change that CVS is implementing?

By October 1 CVS will no longer sell any tobacco or tobacco related products. The manager I spoke with says that this is because selling tobacco, which makes people sick, goes against their corporate values and goals, which are to improve the health of their customers.

I have ZERO clue if this is actually why the chain is ending all tobacco sales or if it is some story the manager made up to sound good.

I do know that ALL tobacco products are marked down substantially. It might be worth checking out if you are a smoker because tobacco doesn't go on sale very often, at least not the big markdowns.
 
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Signorina

Guest
They announced it over the winter. All CVS stores will cease selling tobacco because tobacco products conflict with their designation as a health and wellness store. Bravo!
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I saw that on the sign at our CVS. Wish more stores would do that :)

I cringe when I see people in front of me in gas staions asking for a $6-7 package of cancer sticks. Glad that rather than being the socially acceptable drug it used to be, it is now harder and harder to find places to smoke...maybe it will make some people quit.

I applaud CVS and their decision.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I have always found it odd that pharmacies sell cigarettes and that is coming from a smoker.

I dont agree with anyone telling me where I can smoke. I have stopped eating at so many restaurants that went smoke free before it became a law. I refuse to even go to most of the SC beach areas because they wont even let you smoke outdoors. Idiotic. I had some idiotic rent a cop chase me around a parking lot at a hospital because I was leaving the parking lot but had pulled out my cigarette getting ready to light it as I backed out of my parking space. My car, my right to smoke in it. I paid for that car...no one else. I wont ride with anyone who says I cant smoke.

Now saying all that, I do hope this upcoming generation is the one who wipes out smoking for good. I do wish I hadnt ever started. I am going to try the evape cigarettes. I eat a whole lot of take out food now because I want to smoke after I eat.
 

PatriotsGirl

Well-Known Member
I don't think it is idiotic at all. People think just because it is "outside" it doesn't harm anyone. BS. If I can see and smell the smoke while I am walking through a cloud of it, it most definitely affects me and I am not making that choice to smoke. I almost punched a guy because he was smoking outside a hospital. RIGHT outside of the baby unit - newborns were coming out to go home and he is standing there with his cancer stick puffing away. I had security remove him before I would even think about bringing Connor out and not before a verbalk altercation over it. And he was a complete JERK about it. As if his nasty habit was more important than newborns going home. GRRR. As for restaurants - nothing is more disgusting than smelling that smoke before I am walking in for a meal. GROSS. I absolutely will say something if someone is standing in front of the doors puffing away.

I also believe that if you are going to smoke in your car, you need to keep your windows rolled up. I cannot stand when I am in traffic, it is a gorgeous day outside, I decide to roll down my windows and the first thing I am breathing in is the cigarette smoke wafting from the car in front of me. It rapes my nose and lungs.

AND I am an ex-smoker. I quit several years ago (which was a LOT easier than people had me believing it would be). I sincerely wish I could kick my own butt HARD for all those years I did the very same things. I never realized how horrid it was until I quit. I never realized how rude MY habit was to others until I quit. :( One of my BIGGEST regrets in life is that I EVER touched a cigarette. If I could take it all back, I SO would.

I am happy CVS is not going to contribute anymore. I never felt that it made any sense for them to sell them...
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I'm with PG. I can taste the smoke even if it's outside. NIcotine has proven to be harmful to others and I don't think non-smokers should have to be exposed to it in restaurants or the beach. Nobody is telling anyone not to smoke, but it is forbidden around me. I don't go anywhere, except sometimes a Casino, where one can smoke, and the smoke does bother me there, but I figure it's just two hours twice a year.

If non-smokers don't want to frequent places where they can't smoke, it is their decision. More and more, smoking is becoming not acceptable to the majority.

My daughter will not let her mother-in-law who smokes to take her baby in her smoke filled car or to her apartment, even if she doesn't smoke, because the nicotine lingers in the air. I don't think smokers realize how strong smoke smell and taste is and I know some smokers try to tell themselves smoking isn't so bad to smokers, let alone non-smokers, but smoking has been proven over and over again to affect those around the smoker too. My husband didn't believe how far that smoking smell and taste went until he quit. Now he gets upset if there is smoke smell in our apartment hallway. It is a non-smoking building. Heck, he even called the person in charge to complain and there has been no smoke in our hallway since then. And he was smoking since he was in the Air Force at age seventeen.

My daughter Jumper won't date a boy who smokes. It is even losing it's "cool" with teenagers. I don't think she has any friends who smoke cigarettes.
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
I applaud CVS for this change. I heard this about 6 months ago. It will cost them millions in sales but they are standing on conviction and I respect it.

Reformed smokers are the worst (and I am one)!
 

PatriotsGirl

Well-Known Member
I think the most ridiculous thing I ever heard was a friend justifying smoking outside and then coming in to care for her son who was born with lung problems. She thought it was fine because she was "outside" and wore a long sleeved shirt that she would take off when she was done. Nevermind that it gets all over your face and in your hair - heck, everywhere! She was going back inside after and her son would hug and love on her snuggling all into that stale cigarette smoke. GROSS. She finally quit.

Thankfully, my daughter will not bring the baby around any homes where people smoke and she has her own car that has never been smoked in. And go figure - Connor has had the sniffles for one day in his one year of life. No colds, no fevers, no ear infections. Nothing. I do not believe that is a coincidence...
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am not as militant as some of you over this. I do think that some areas should be non-smoking, period. I totally support places designed to promote health not selling tobacco, and I think it is wonderful that CVS is doing this. I would also LOVE to see places that sell gasoline not sell alcohol, but that one may never happen.

If a restaurant does not market to children in any way, I think laws demanding that they be smoke free are out of line. If the restaurant has kids meals or cute cartoon characters or kid menus or playgrounds or whatever, then they should be smoke free, period. Children cannot legally smoke and should not be subjected to the smoke of strangers. For adult only businesses, I think that the customers should dictate whether the business is smoke free or not. If you don't want smoking areas, you spend your $$ in restaurants that are non smoking. This gives the decision to the business owners and to the customers and does NOT put it in the hands of the government. When adults are the ones impacted, I think that the gov't should NOT make this decision. The capitalist market can make it and enforce it just fine.

I do believe that smokers should not smoke at entrances to buildings, esp hospital an health care related buildings. I do think that a smoking area away from the entrances but WITH at least an overhang and a bench should be available.

Car smoking? Not in my car, not ever. That smell just won't come out. I cannot ride in cars with someone smoking or that someone has smoked in. I can't breathe if I do. But I don't have the right to tell you that you cannot smoke in your car. I think while on the grounds of a hospital or school, you should not smoke with your windows down. On a public street? You have as much right to smoke as I have a right not to.
I like that smoking is less common, but as long as it is legal we should not treat smokers as if they are out to harm us. That really IS the way many people come across when they discuss the issue. Making smoking illegal isn't going to help the issue because it will work as well as Prohibition did with alcohol or as well as the DEA is doing with pot. Taxing the snot out of it seems so far to be far more effective.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Sus, much as I love you, smoke can harm us, children or not children. Second hand smoke can cause lung cancer, emphysema, can trigger ashtma attacks in adults who have asthma...it may be legal, but it isn't safe for anyone. And, in any restaurant, there are people who are not so healthy, with lung and heart problems who want a meal not a trip to ER. And many of us don't want the smoke to take away from the flavor of our food. As much as I am a non-drinker (never been drunk in my life, never intend on changing that) and don't enjoy seeing drunken people, their druenkenness does not linger on my clothing, get into my lungs, affect asthmatics and is not a health hazard to anyone else unless they are on the road. And that isn't legal. I truly believe it should be illegal to smoke in places of business if it is a health hazard to anyone else. And I think we are heading there.

I really don't care if people smoke somewhere other than around me. That is their business. If they want to be closed up in a car with all that smoke, so be it. If they want to have that awful smoker's cough that my hub had before he quit, that is their business. If they want to get emphysema, congestive heart failure, etc. that is a personal choice. But don't make me inhale your smoke that I chose never to do.

I think it is perfectly fine to ban smoking around people, period, because it's not safe. Smoke in your house. Smoke where you're allowed...I can cross the street if you're outside. But keep it out of workplaces, restaurants and any enclosed places where people who choose to be nicotine free may be. I don't care if you're smoking at 12 or 55. It's a health hazard that doesn't need sharing.

by the way, I feel the same way about pot, whether it becomes legal or not and believe pot will have the same rules as cigarettes does.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
MWM, I agree that it can harm you. I just think the laws are not really needed as most people I know would not go into a restaurant or business with smoking unless they are smokers. I think the basic economics would go a lot farther to keeping smoke out of businesses than laws do. Heck, I know a LOT of people who would LOVE to go to the casinos but won't because of the smoke. In my area there are several casinos now discussing becoming smoke free because they are losing business and the crazy restaurant and shop and ticket prices are not making up for that revenue. That was what I meant. I do think smokers should have places they can choose to go to eat inside and smoke, simply because we have not made tobacco illegal. It would be an owner's choice to make the business smoking, they would probably have higher taxes because we have higher taxes on tobacco and it would be a sane way to keep many businesses smoke free, but we are a society that believes in freedom of choice, or so we say. I won't go back to a casino in the forseeable future because of the smoking issue. husband and I were stuck on one side of town and there isn't much over there but a new Hard Rock Casino. I had forgotten how nasty places with smoking smell. It was late morning on a weekday and the entire place had that nasty funk of old smoke. Sad for such a big pretty building.

But I understand that not everyone will agree with this, and that is okay.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Sus, you make a point, but, as a non-smoker who doesn't want to wait until people decide to not inflict their dangerous habit on others, I'm glad there are laws banning smoking. There are always jerks who are difficult children and will show up just to fling the smoke in everyone's face and that one smoker could cause somebody harm or, at least, ruin a lot of people's dinner's taste. I remember when I was a teen, and you could smoke anywhere in a restaurant, some guy was blowing smoke in me and my friend's direction and making me cough. I asked him very nicely if he would please not blow it my way. There was just the aisle on his other side. He said, "No," and he did it even more so we left. Plenty of idiots are still capable of being that way. This was a grown man probably out with his wife (if it was a date, you'd think she would have been embarassed and walked out on him...lol). That memory stuck with me. He wasn't the only one who was rude, but he was the most blatant when two fifteen year olds were asking him in a sweet, innocent, non-jerky way...

I do not believe in freedom of choice if it infringes on the rights of others. And I think that's what smoking near others does. I guess I'm not much of a libertarian. I believe in good laws and I think this is a good law.

I'm happy with the direction this is going. It is one of the very few things I feel (in this country, at least) is actually going the way most people want it to. Casinos still allow smoking. As long as no laws ban it, it will take a long time for the owners to do it. And I'd go to the casino way more if they did ban smoking. As it is, I end up moving around so that at least a smoker isn't sitting next to me while I play. Hubby, as an ex-smoker, is even more intolerant of smoking...lol.

But thanks for your thoughts and a good discussion.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I'm an ex-smoker for 22 years now. I quit after smoking a pack and a half a day steadily for 18 years. I can honestly say that taking up smoking was the open door to every vice I ever had, legal or illegal, and was absolutely the wedge between my father and I. I would do most anything for a smoke. Well, not that, but most anything else. ;) Not to excuse my dad calling me a sl-t and slapping me around at aged 12 when he caught me smoking, but if I had not been so addicted I would have made other choices with my life that I think in hindsight would have been better for me and for my family. If it hadn't been so forbidden I probably would never have tried it.

I can be driving down the road and if the person in the car in front of me is smoking I can smell it. In truth, to this day I love the smell of fresh cigarette smoke. For a moment. But the lingering stale smell is awful and it always comes to that.

It doesn't bother me that they are now saying that they want to limit smoking outside. I used to have a nice home around the corner from some apartments and every day all day long you'd see people standing outside on the sidewalk smoking. It was so white trashy looking! I couldn't see the sense in it. Hopefully they're going to paint and clean carpets when people leave, so why not let them smoke in their homes? I don't want to see a bunch of tattooed teenagers smoking on the sidewalk! I really don't care if people smoke in their cars, either, so long as they use their ashtray for an ashtray, and empty it at home.

I think that the world would be a better place without tobacco. I feel that it's shameful the way cigarettes are sold to children in other countries. They smoke a lot more in NC than they did in OR, but that kind of goes to figure - Winston, Raleigh, Salem, need I say more? I'm glad they banned it in restaurants, and I suppose that if there were places for people like Janet that want to smoke in a restaurant and only allowed adults that would be ok with me. The genie's out of the bottle on that one. But if no one ever started smoking again it would be a good thing. And E-Cigs are not the answer.
 
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Signorina

Guest
The smoking bans in restaurants aren't about protecting customers. They're about protecting restaurant workers who have the legal right to a safe workplace. Cigarette smoke is an occupational hazard.

Bartenders have higher rates of workplace exposure lung cancer than firefighters and miners. The secondhand smoke exposure to restaurant workers is 1-1/2 times the secondhand smoke exposure of living with a moderate smoker and 3 to 6 times greater than other smoking workplaces.

The restaurant industry is a major employer in the USA
 
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DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I smoke...am probably going to be trying those new evape cigs soon but I will be damned if anyone is going to tell me where I can smoke. I will just not go to places like that. Im surprised bars are still open. I wouldnt go in one. I used to go out to eat and linger while reading a book and smoking. No more. I buy cheap take out food and eat at home. Oh well...those places I spent my money dont get it anymore.

SC wont get any more of my money. The first time someone tells me I cant smoke in my car will be the day I probably end up in jail. I pay for my cars, I pay for my home and I will do what I want in it. I dont give a darn what anyone thinks about it. They dont like it, dont come near me. There are a whole hell of a lot of things other people do that I find offensive but I cant stop them.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I hate smoking. But ... CVS still sells alcohol. Just saying ... :)

Indeed they do. And who controls all alcohol sales in most states? The state liquor control commission. That relationship is FAR TOO CHUMMY for anyone to ever give THAT up.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Im surprised bars are still open. I wouldnt go in one.

Are you referring to drinking in bars, or to smoking in bars? It's not legal to smoke in a bar, but most bars have outdoor seating for smokers, which the law you're referring to would stop... (They smell like giant ashtrays and are always right on the main street with lots of traffic noise.)
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Im referring to bars stopping allowing people to smoke in them. I havent seen any with outside seating. Be sorta hard to watch the game from outside.

However, how are Hookah bars legal if smoking isnt?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Janet, you're a kind, compassionate person. Why do you feel others should have to inhale nicotine just for the convenience of those who choose to smoke?

Alcohol MAY be harmful to certain people, but not by fumes from another person so I don't see it as the same. Actually, any drug MAY be dangerous to somebody, but it is not spread to anybody else. I see this as the difference. Also, some people are responsible drinkers. Nobody can "smoke" responsibly. Every puff of smoke is nicotine in your lungs and the lungs of anyone near you.

Just like our difficult children who want to use drugs, and many are hooked on legal drugs, anything can be dangerous to somebody, even getting into a car. But cigarette smoke is known and proven to be harmful to others around them. I do not know the legal/illegal smoking laws for my state because I don't smoke. I'm just glad that the toxic fumes are not a part of my life anymore.

Nobody is saying ban cigarettes. That would be as useless as Prohibition. But if we don't have to join the smokers in this unhealthy habit, I think bans where non-smokers may go makes sense. I hope you join us one day and quit. Can't tell you how it is not to hear my hubby's horrible smoker's cough! It took him five times to quit, but he's smoke free now for two years. He is not tolerant of smokers around him. I think while you are still smoking it's hard to understand how much the surrounding smoke affects others. My hubby has admitted he did not realize it. After all, h e was around smoke all the time. When he wasn't smoking, he had the scent on his clothes and the taste in his mouth. Now that he doesn't, it bothers him a lot.
 
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