Jonathan Bricker, Ph.D., a smoking-cessation expert and psychologist in the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has the following to say regarding CVS' decision to ban the sale of tobacco products:
“The CVS ban on the sale of cigarettes is a big deal for a couple of reasons. For one, limiting access to cigarettes is a trigger for smokers to quit. And two, limiting access discourages adolescents from taking up smoking. This kind of major announcement also raises awareness of the problem of smoking in the U.S: There are still 42 million people in the United States who are smokers.”
“When a retail outlet makes a decision like this, it really does get people’s attention to the issue of smoking in the United States and the need for bold approaches to help get people to quit and to prevent young people from starting.”
“The implications this has is that it will motivate other large drug stores to also consider bans on sales of cigarettes because what’s happening in parallel with this process is that drug stores are beginning to bill themselves as miniature clinics. They want to be able to provide some minor health care services to people. Smoking cessation is one of them—it’s a very important preventive service.”
“When customers associate a store like CVS with quitting smoking, which they will now, they will seek out smoking-cessation services there.”
Bricker is available for interviews as well.
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