Blumenthal Calls on Walgreens, Rite Aid to Follow CVS' Lead

By Feroze Dhanoa

Following CVS’ decision to stop selling tobacco products, Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked other big pharmacy chains to do the same, NBC Connecticut reported.

“A company that promotes health and wellness cannot profit from death and addiction, and this is inevitably what smoking causes,” Blumenthal told the news channel while standing outside a Walgreens in Hartford.

The Senator issued letters to Walgreens, Rite Aid and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores yesterday formally requesting the stores to stop selling tobacco products.

In the letters, Blumenthal called the sale of tobacco products by the pharmacies antithetical to the wellbeing of their customers. Blumenthal said that Americans looked to their pharmacies for the best health practices.

The Senator recognized the pharmacies’ sale of tobacco cessation products but asked them to end the sale of tobacco products to support customers who are trying to quit smoking.

Last week, CVS officially ended the sale of tobacco in all of its stores.

Blumenthal, along with seven other U.S. senators first asked the drug stores to withdraw tobacco products in February, when CVS initially announced their plan to stop selling tobacco products.

“Good health and tobacco-America’s leading killer-simply can’t be sold in the same store. Drug stores need to put their stores truly at the corner of happy and healthy, not death and addiction,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

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