City bans pharmacy cig sales

DECLARING BIG Tobacco “public enemy No. 1,” Mayor de Blasio signed legislation Monday to cut down on the number of places to buy cigarettes and hike the minimum price to $13 a pack — with a goal of 160,000 fewer smokers by 2020.

“It’s very cynical. It’s all about greed,” de Blasio said at Kings County Hospital, where he signed the bills. “We have these major international corporations that clearly know better, but to make a buck they’re looking to hook a whole new generation of young people on tobacco products, and we have to stop them.”

Pharmacies — local shops as well as ubiquitous city chains like Duane Reade — will have to pull cigarettes off the shelf as the city bans the sale of smokes there.

In addition, the minimum price for a pack of cigarettes will jump from $10.50 to $13, the highest price floor for cigarettes in the nation, de Blasio said. While many retailers now charge that much or more for a pack, the average price in the city is $11.24, according to the Health Department.

With brands forced to charge at least $13 for the cheapest pack, the department expects prices to rise for premium brands as well to maintain separation from lower-tier smokes.

And tobacco products other than cigarettes will also jump in price thanks to a 10% tax that will go to public housing.

Outside a tobacco store on Myrtle Ave. in Clinton Hill, Donald Montez, 53 of Brooklyn, a 25-year smoker who works in construction, supported the price hike.

“I know that almost as long as I've been smoking, I’ve been trying to quit smoking. Cigs have gotten more expensive over the years, and it’s helped me cut back,” he said. “But this might finally seal it for me, and I might be able to quit.”

The minimum-price hike goes into effect June 1, and the pharmacy ban on Jan. 1, 2019.