CVS Caremark Corp, one of the largest drugstores in the United States, stated that as of October 2014 it will no longer carry tobacco products in any of its 7,600 stores around the country, hoping its voluntary decision will have a ripple effect among other pharmacy chains.<\/p>\n
Larry J. Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Caremark, said in a statement, “Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS\/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health.\u00a0 Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose.”<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama praised the pharmacy\u2019s precedent-setting move and said in a statement, “As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today’s decision will help advance my administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs — ultimately saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come.”<\/p>\n
CVS estimates that it stands to lose upwards of $2 billion as a result of pulling cigarettes and other tobacco products off their shelves.\u00a0 But when weighed against a reported $123.1 billion in revenues in 2012, it doesn\u2019t appear that CVS will be feeling much of a fiscal pinch.<\/p>\n
Tobacco still remains the number one cause of preventable disease and death. \u00a0A U.S. Surgeon General report last month linked smoking to 480,000 deaths annually, up from a previous estimate of 443,000 deaths. It attributed at least $289 billion in annual costs from smoking, including $150 billion for lost productivity and $130 billion in medical care.<\/p>\n
But CVS is not being hailed a hero by everyone.\u00a0 Many critics are calling into question the mega pharmacy\u2019s decision to pull tobacco products while at the same time continue to stock and sell unhealthy processed food choices and alcoholic beverages.\u00a0 Others are disgruntled over the restrictions and regulations being placed upon them as they watch their freedom of choice being chipped away at by just another big corporation.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the drug chain is just following the breadcrumbs on the money trail, keenly aware of the significant decline in the number of cigarette smokers over the years and a steadily rising number of prescription drug sales.\u00a0 Stores like CVS and Walgreen\u2019s are the gatekeepers to highly addictive and oftentimes abused prescription drugs like painkillers, tranquilizers, antidepressants, sleeping pills and stimulants, which can be just as addictive and potent as the heroin or cocaine sold on the street.\u00a0\u00a0And with the surging number of “pain management” clinics and pill mills popping up around the country, the business of pedaling prescription drugs has turned into a multi-billion dollar racket.<\/p>\n
Maybe a company’s decision to remove a product known to harm people is as a result of a new world attempting to emerge, a world where the multi-million dollar corporations are forced to make changes in response to humanity\u2019s evolution.\u00a0 Human beings are waking up and wising up to tobacco companies engineering addictive products and marketing them disingenuously as \u201ccool\u201d or \u201crelaxing,\u201d no longer willing to sit back and watch cigarette makers rake in billions of dollars at the expense of people dying from cancer, emphysema, and heart disease.<\/p>\n
So what do you think?\u00a0 Is CVS\u2019s decision a step in the \u201cright\u2019 direction, a cause for celebration?\u00a0 Or is it another slight-of-hand marketing ploy created to divert our attention from what is going on somewhere else in their stores?\u00a0 How does their declaration of \u201chelping people on their path to better health\u201d feel to you?\u00a0 Authenticate?\u00a0 Genuine?\u00a0 Promising?\u00a0 Contradictory? \u00a0How long will financial benefit continue to be a dominating factor in the way people and businesses operate and function in our communities? \u00a0In our world? \u00a0Are we well on our way or at least beginning to see the day where the collective desires and longings for a better world, a freer world, a healthier and happier world, a more spiritually aware and conscious world, will produce and bring forth exactly that?<\/em><\/p>\n