Would You Support a Ban on Tobacco Sales at Dobbs Ferry Pharmacies?

DOBBS FERRY, NY — Pharmacies sell good health and well-being. Should they also sell products that contain tobacco and are proven to cause cancer and other potentially fatal diseases?

The Rockland County Legislature doesn’t think so and in a bipartisan 15-0 vote Tuesday adopted a new local law, the Tobacco-Free Pharmacies Act, which bans the sale of all tobacco products in pharmacies and in retail establishments containing pharmacies.

“It doesn’t make sense that a place we go to pick up a prescription or other item intended to boost our health would also be a place that sells a product that can damage our health,” Legislature Vice Chairwoman Nancy Low-Hogan said. “It sends a confusing message to people, and especially to children and teens, about the real threats posed to their health by tobacco products.”

This law would make Rockland County a leader in New York state. Would you like Westchester to do the same? Tell us in the comments.

Low-Hogan (D-South Nyack) introduced the measure, which carries a civil penalty of up to $2,000 per violation. The county Health Commissioner would have sole jurisdiction to enforce the law.

The resolution now moves to the County Executive’s desk for his consideration. He can opt to veto it, take no action or sign it into law. If he takes no action or signs it into law, Rockland County would become the first municipality in the state to enact a tobacco-free pharmacy measure, according to the state Bureau of Tobacco Control.

Nationwide, more than 150 municipalities in Massachusetts, California and Minnesota have tobacco-free pharmacy laws in place, and the nation’s second-largest pharmacy chain, CVS Health, removed tobacco products from its shelves as of September 2014.

Denise Hogan, project coordinator for the POW’R Against Tobacco program of the American Lung Association of the Northeast, said research has shown that enacting such laws can reduce both smoking rates and the number of youths who take up smoking.

Hogan advocated for the law and was among those who addressed legislators during a public hearing Tuesday.

“Removing tobacco from pharmacies is a win-win for our community and for our pharmacies,” Hogan said. “It can increase profit margins for the pharmacy, help improve public health by reducing the convenient access to cigarettes, and it changes the social norms regarding tobacco use.

“POW’R Against Tobacco congratulates the Rockland County Legislature for once again leading the way in public health for New York state,” Hogan said.

The documented impact of tobacco products on health is staggering.

Annually, more than 13,000 New Yorkers are diagnosed with lung cancer and about 9,000 die of the disease, according to the New York state Health Department.

Tobacco-related health care costs New Yorkers $10.4 billion annually, of which Medicaid covers $3.3 billion, according to the state Health Department.

On the positive front, Rockland County has the lowest prevalence of adults who smoke in New York. Still, about one in 10 adults in Rockland are smokers, according to 2016 statistics from the state Bureau of Tobacco Control.

Hogan compiled information about pharmacies and tobacco products in Rockland.

The county is home to 215 tobacco retailers, of which 18 are pharmacies or contain a pharmacy: one is a privately-owned pharmacy and nine are part of a pharmacy chain (Walgreen’s, Rite Aid and Drug Mart); eight supermarkets have pharmacies and sell tobacco products.

Of the 20 privately-owned pharmacies in Rockland, just one sells tobacco.

Hogan said 196 non-pharmacy retailers sell tobacco products.

The new law would not affect those retailers; smokers will still be able to purchase tobacco products from them.

Legislators Jay Hood (D-Haverstraw) and Aney Paul (D-Nanuet) were absent.

PHOTO/ Centers for Disease Control