Ban tobacco in pharmacies, advocates urge province

B.C. last Canadian jurisdiction to allow such sales, but some drugstore chains have already stopped

Thousands of people have signed a petition demanding B.C. join other provinces across Canada in banning the sale of tobacco in pharmacies and stores with pharmacies.

B.C. is the only province or territory in Canada that allows tobacco to be sold in drugstores after Manitoba banned such sales in 2013.

“B.C.'s continuing to allow tobacco sales in pharmacies is highly inappropriate,” Dr. Stuart H. Kreisman, a St. Paul's Hospital endocrinologist and head of the Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said in an email.

Smoking opponent Leo Lavasseur said he collected 7,000 signatures on an online change.org petition, but sent only the ones from people who lived in B.C., about 800, to Health Minister Adrian Dix last month.

He reminded Dix that when he was health critic in 2014, he called on the previous Liberal government to “come forward into the 21st century and not allow the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies.”

“What happened since then?” said Lavasseur. “What made him change his mind?”

In a response to Lavasseur's petition, B.C.'s health protection branch acknowledged there is no provincial or federal law prohibiting pharmacies from selling tobacco, but said “as part of our continued focus on reducing the prevalence of tobacco and vapour product use, the Ministry of Health is undertaking an assessment of tobacco and vapour product sales in B.C. pharmacies.”

Dix didn't respond to a request for comment on Thursday and the Health Ministry didn't provide any details of the assessment.

More than six years ago, the College of Pharmacists of B.C. had proposed a new bylaw that would deny a licence to pharmacists working in pharmacies where tobacco was sold.

The heads of retail chain pharmacies and stores with pharmacies in a letter threatened to sue the college for overstepping its authority with such a ban. The signatories included the head of London Drugs and Rexall as well as grocery stores with pharmacies, such as Safeway, Overwaitea, Thrifty Foods and Sobeys.

The college is now not banning tobacco sales, a spokesman for the registrar said in an unsigned emailed statement.

It dropped a proposed ban in 2014 because it's the provincial government's role to regulate the sale of tobacco products, as has happened in other provinces, according to the email.

It's not known how many of B.C.'s 1,000 pharmacies continue to sell tobacco.

A spokesman for Rexall said on Thursday the chain stopped selling tobacco three or four years ago. The other main pharmacy chains, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmasave, no longer sell cigarettes.

London Drugs is the last remaining drugstore chain that continues to sell tobacco, said Lavasseur, who doesn't represent an anti-smoking group but has been fighting for seven years to get pharmacies banned from selling tobacco on behalf of three loved ones with lung disease caused by smoking, including his father, who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a year ago.

Lavasseur said he objects to pharmacies profiting from cigarette sales and also accepting tax money for cessation programs and aids.