Is San Francisco going too far with its ban on tobacco sales?

[cboy4]

Board passes tobacco ban in pharmacies

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

San Francisco lawmakers voted Tuesday to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco products at most pharmacies, a move that backers hope will lead to similar laws across the country.

The ban has already attracted the attention of Marin County leaders, who may push forward with their own proposal.

The ban passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on an 8-3 vote, with some supervisors predicting it would be a "first step" toward additional bans on the sale of tobacco in the city.

<snip>

The law will ban the sale of all tobacco products at pharmacies in the city, including Walgreens and Rite Aid stores. Big-box stores like Costco and supermarkets like Safeway will still be allowed to sell tobacco.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/30/BAC7121IRV.DTL&tsp=1



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They'll be rioting in the streets if they ban circumcision, breast feeding, the death penalty and owning a gun inside American drug stores.

[Happyhippychick]

1. I love it. I wish they would ban spanking, too.

[Kittycat]

2. I have no problem with it

[devilgrrl]

3. No. Go to a liquor store - how hard is it?

:crazy:

[LisaM]

4. Well - I don't smoke, and I don't live in California, but.....

here in Washington state, it's really not that easy to go to a liquor store. They are state run, few and far between, generally not within walking distance of neighborhoods, and have extremely limited hours. I have no idea what the situation for buying liquor is in California.

[cboy4]

11. It's extremely easy buying liquor here....there are liquor

stores everywhere, and you can also buy booze in drug stores, grocery stores and gas station convenience stores.

I was shocked when I went to college in Knoxville, TN to learn of such a thing called a "package store." I was like, what, you can't buy beer at the grocery store? :wtf:

But in California, liquor stores are a dime a dozen.

[LisaM]

15. A few years ago I was trying to find some rum in North Carolina

I never did find it. Finally, on the last day we were there, someone informed us that the seedy little white stucco buildings that said ABC were where you bought hard liquor. How on earth one is supposed to deduce that, I don't know!

[yardwork]

20. Yeah, but once you know you realize that ABC stores are everywhere in NC!

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Pharmacies in Europe don't sell cigarettes

They don't sell anything but Pharmaceutical products.

[AngryAmish]

17. Pharmacies in mexico sell all sorts of interesting stuff

[Tarc]

6. Don't really see the legal suppotr behind this

Nanny-state nonsense that'll likely be overturned when challenged.

[SteelPenguin]

7. I hate legislation like this. Hate it.

No, not the aspect of banning tobacco, but the aspect of picking and choosing.

If a government wants to ban the sale of product in their jurisdiction they should be able to do so, but by picking and choosing who can and can't then you're favoring one business over another. If you're going to have a smoking ban in a city, you can't say it's everywhere EXECPT X, Y, and Z establishments. It's all or nothing in my opinion.

All this does is hurt pharmacies, and favor corner stores, or supermarkets. People don't just go buy smokes. They buy a drink, candy, smokes, gum, high markup items. You're taking that completely away from the pharmacies, and hence it's a targeted law that reads more as anti-pharmacy than anti-tobacco.

They should just have the balls to actually ban it, rather than do this, imho.

[RB TexLa]

8. Wouldn't it be easier if they just had the cops put a bullet between the eyes of anyone smoking in

the city. We must be that big of a problem.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. It's death by a thousand cuts.

The supes should just ban smoking everywhere in the city and be done with it.

I've never been a smoker and wish the practice would go away but the supes are getting too creative on this issue.

[Demobrat]

10. There are plenty of places to buy cigarettes.

I don't actually see the point of this, since I don't think it will stop anybody from smoking, but I have no problem with it either.

[aine p]

13. No nothing is going to stop people from smoking

The ban on smoking inside establishments hasn't caused much inconvenience for smokers, neither will going to a different shop to get cigarettes

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. I guess rights can be abridged, as long as you like who's abridging them

A religious pharmacist is excoriated for choosing not to sell morning after pills, but people yawn when a government decides where smokes can be sold.

Hm.

[Book Lover]

14. This is actually not about banning tobacco sales

but is rather an attack on Rite-Aid and Walgreens. Nothing about this resolution will prevent someone from buying cigarettes, etc, easily. However, Rite-Aid and Walgreens will be forbidden to profit from tobacco sales in the county.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. My Walgreens where I buy my cigs said that the corporate headquarters

Is talking about not selling cigs. This was months ago and had nothing
to do with any state or national legislation but was for corporate image PR.

[Fuzz]

18. Won't effect me, but that shouldn't matter. It's just stupid.

Just stop this shit. It's going to far, has been for sometime.

I am a freakin' adult. Quit trying to turn the world into nerf world or disneyland. Adults are allowed and should be allowed to do stupid things to themselves. Leave us the fuck alone for crying out loud.

We're polluting the world, killing each other all over the fucking place and governments are trying to 'protect' us from bad things adults should decide for themselves whether or not they want to ingest or not. Ridiculous.

It's a war on personal freedom, and don't give me the, "you've lost your personal freedom to nicotine" shit. It's bigger than that. It's trans fat, next will be caffeine or something you may enjoy that may be 'bad' for you.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. It's good by me. nt

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. It's The Most Stupid Ban I've Seen Yet.

Cigarette sales ruin the image of pharmacies as being places where you go to get better? That's gotta be the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. Morons.

[cboy4]

22. I disagree with you.

It's "morans."