San Francisco Law On Pharmacy Sales Is Contested in CourtWalgreen Co. has asked a San Francisco state court to block implementation of a recently passed city ordinance banning sales of tobacco products at pharmacies, set to take effect Oct. 1.
In the legal challenge, filed in California Superior court, the Deerfield, Ill., drug-store chain alleges the new law is anticompetitive and unconstitutional, because it doesn't ban tobacco sales at grocery stores and wholesale clubs that also have pharmacies.
The court set a Sept. 30 hearing date for preliminary injunction. The ordinance would affect 52 Walgreen pharmacies in San Francisco.
In August, San Francisco became the first city in the country to ban cigarette sales at pharmacies. The law, introduced by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and modeled on similar bans in eight Canadian provinces, was approved by the city's board of supervisors in two consecutive 8-3 votes.
Mitch Katz, director of San Francisco's Public Health Department, told the board that pharmacies market themselves as places where people go to get healthy and it sends a conflicting message when they also sell cigarettes, a known health hazard. But dissenting board members questioned why certain retailers that sell prescription drugs were exempted from the ban.
San Francisco's tobacco sales ban is part of a broader effort among private and public health professionals to bar tobacco sales at both pharmacies and retailers with on-site health clinics. The Boston Public Health Commission last week gave its initial approval to ban tobacco products at pharmacies, including supermarkets that dispense prescription drugs. The law, which has the blessing of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, would also ban cigarette sales on college campuses. After a 60-day period of public input, including a public hearing Oct. 8, the Boston Public Health Commission, which regulates tobacco sales in the city, will revisit the proposed ban.
Legislators in New York, Illinois, Rhode Island and Tennessee also have proposed tobacco-sale bans this year, though the efforts so far have stalled under opposition from retailers and the tobacco industry.
Antismoking activists had hoped the San Francisco ban would provide impetus for other cities and states to follow suit. Its supporters say the purpose is to help reduce smoking-related illnesses and premature death by making cigarettes and other tobacco products less accessible. By ratcheting up the social unacceptability of smoking, they hope to prevent young people from starting the smoking habit.
"This is about basic fairness, singling out drug stores and not other retailers with pharmacies," said Walgreen spokesman Michael Polzin of the company's suit.
By: Ann Zimmerman
Wall Street Journal; September 10, 2008
