ASCO has joined 26 of the nation’s leading public health and medical organizations in signing a joint letter calling on drug stores and other retailers to end the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The open letter came just weeks after CVS Caremark announced it would stop selling tobacco products in all of its pharmacy stores in the United States. In the letter, the organizations urge drug stores and other retailers to follow CVS Caremark’s example and end tobacco sales, citing tobacco products as the number one cause of preventable disease and death.
The letter emphasizes that retailers dedicated to improving health and saving lives must not continue to profit from the tobacco products that severely harm the people who use them. The organizations signing the letter believe that reducing the availability of such products will ultimately help end the tobacco epidemic. ■
© 2014. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
