The Tobacco Sales : Pharmacy

Food and drug administration is a department of U.S health and human services. It’s responsibility is to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs entering the market as well as to make sure that these medicines are quickly accessible to people. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has been passed in 1938 to ensure that foods other than meat, poultry and fish are clinically hygienic and safe to eat. This act also requires that the food should be labelled according to its content. (FDA.org) Drugs and tobacco are also regulated by FDA and in 1996, FDA strictly regulated the use of tobacco products like nicotine, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, by children and adolescents because of the increase in diseases prevalence and tobacco addiction. Annually 40000 deaths are attributable to its use and most of them are of premature. Therefore the goal of FDA is to stop the tobacco addiction by minors and prevent the deaths and diseases due to nicotine addiction. (FDA vs Brown, n.d) This essay will cover the food and drug administration’s role in under and over regulating drugs and medicines and how it effects our economy, health care system and patients health and safety.

Tobacco has been around in the world for over 2.5 million years. It was not until a few hundred years ago when the tobacco industry decided to put these crops into use and conjure up tobacco products for the community. A popular tobacco product in society is cigarettes, as they are cheap and simple to use. As long as one is over eighteen, acquiring cigarettes is a straightforward process for a reasonable price, albeit the sin tax. It was not until recently when cigarettes became widely controversial due to the plant containing nicotine, an addictive drug to the body. Aside from containing nicotine and other hazardous chemicals to the body, cigarettes also cause a whole host of health implications

The company will lose over 2 million dollars in sales from customers who buy cigarettes and other tobacco products. The overall sales were over 123 billion dollars in 2012 (NY Times, 2014). By October 1, 2014, over 7,6000 stores nationwide stopped selling these products. According to president and CEO Larry Merlo, this is the right decision for the company and customers because selling tobacco does not correlate with their purpose. Be removing the products, they will better serve patients, clients and health care providers (CVS Health, 2014).

For both the pro and con sides these facts are presented in order to support each paper's opinions. One opinion of the pro side is that the market of cigarettes is a market for disease and death. At one point the paper states, "Outrage at an industry that has made billions selling sickness and death" the paper enforces this opinion later by saying, "For decades, Big Tobacco has made a profit by selling the instruments of disease and death." Another opinion is that tobacco industries are the only companies that manufacture a product which causes serious illness and kills. The pro side quotes Edward L. Kaven, author of Smoking: The Story Behind the Maze as saying, "the only industry which produces a consumer product that is likely to kill and render human beings seriously ill when used as intended." I believe that these opinions are exaggerated ones. First of all, the tobacco companies are not the only companies that sell a product that is unhealthy and even has devastating affects on people.

CVS Health announced in 2014 that it wanted to stop selling all tobacco related products. This will affect every CVS location in the United States of America. The problem that arises in the U.S. is the usage of tobacco products. As a successful pharmacy chain and a lucrative company, CVS health wants to do its best to strengthen the health of American citizens. In order to solve the tobacco problem, the health professionals are taking it upon themselves to make a difference. If the distribution of tobacco products come to a halt at CVS pharmacies, consumers will either stop buying the products all together or looking for the products elsewhere.

In the land of fair trade, all industries are not equal. I do not believe it is unfair or unethical for the tobacco industry to be treated as such. Choosing to smoking has an effect on you and everyone around you. I know we as American are used to individual freedoms, but in my opinion you should not have the freedom to partake in products that are harmful to the person sitting next to you.

In Vanguard’s documentary, Sex, Lies, and Cigarettes: Secrets of the Tobacco Industry by director, Alex Simmons, Vanguard sends correspondent, Christof Putzel to Jakarta, Indonesia to investigate the tobacco industry there. The documentary talks about how America no longer allows cigarette and tobacco ads and commercials, instead the country focuses scare tactic ads that stop people from smoking or keeps them from starting. The tobacco industry is losing millions of dollars in America so they’re moving overseas to poorer countries like Indonesia to make their money there. Putzel goes to see what all the tobacco industry is doing and how they’re corrupting the young people like ‘the smoking baby’, Aldi, as well as students of the country.

In 2014, CVS collaborated with the American Lung Association in the fight against lung cancer. A part of the LUNG FORCE, CVS has taken many strides to help prevent cancer through the halt of tobacco sales in all stores and donations to the American Lung Association. From December 2014 to June 2015, CVS hosted an in-store fundraiser to raise money and awareness for lung cancer (Kanani 2014). There was also a one percent reduction in tobacco sales in the United States in the months following CVS’ decision to stop selling cigarettes; this amounts for 95 million cigarette packs.

Tobacco products: The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products directs tobacco merchandise and superintends the implementation

Cigarettes are the leading cause of preventable disease or death in the United States resulting in 480,000 per year (CDC). In comparison, there has never been a reported death due solely

Tobacco accounts for 40% of the cardiovascular diseases. In the 1960s, legislation have placed a warning regarding cigarette use on front of the packets. Even though a warning label placed on the tobacco packet, young adults would still start smoking. CVS Health has taken a decision to stop selling tobacco in its stores. Therefore, Shalom Jacobovitz (2014) wrote a journal article that supports his belief to stop selling tobacco in pharmaceutical stores. Jacobovitz convinces his audience, primarily the leaders of pharmaceutical chains and also smokers, through the use of ethos, pathos and logos.

As the leading manufacturer in the moist smokeless tobacco industry, UST Inc. has long been recognized by its ability to generate high profit using low financial leverage. With a dominant market share of 77%, the company maintains a pricing power that allows it to institute annual price increases without losing costumers. However, UST’s market share was eroded significantly in recent years by price-value competitors who enter the market with lower prices. Although UST responded to these threat by introducing new products, market share still decreased by 1.6% over past 7 years. In addition, UST is also exposed to an unfavorable legislative environment, in which the company is under advertising and product promotion

The tobacco industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on September 11, 2001. That sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well, smoking is an epidemic that affects us all, whether you are a smoker or you aren’t. In order to stop this epidemic, we need to

Nicotine use is a leading preventable cause of death in the world, directly and indirectly responsible for 440,000 deaths per year. The health problems that result in tobacco use tally an annual of $75 billion in direct medical costs (Slovic 36). That money spent on medical problems for smokers should be used to pay for more important things in our society such as schools, libraries, childcare, etc.

There are several ethical philosophies in play here regarding the tobacco company and these ethical issues can be explored by analyzing the myriad of interplay of relationships