CVS/pharmacy will stop selling cigarettes and all tobacco products at its more than 7,600 stores nationwide by October 1, 2014

Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is simply the right thing to do for the good of our customers and our company. The sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose helping people on their path to better health.

As the delivery of health care evolves with an emphasis on better health outcomes, reducing chronic disease and controlling costs, CVS Caremark is playing an expanded role through our 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners. By removing tobacco products from our retail shelves, we will better serve our patients, clients and health care providers while positioning CVS Caremark for future growth as a health care company. Cigarettes and tobacco products have no place in a setting where health care is delivered. This is the right thing to do.

Bma – e-cigarettes

Electronic cigarette

E cigarettes are battery operated products designed to replicate smoking behaviour without the use of tobacco. Some look like conventional cigarettes, while others appear more like an electronic device.

They use heat to vaporise a liquid based solution containing nicotine into an aerosol mist and have been proposed as a way to help smokers quit the habit.

They are subject to limited regulation, and are not licensed as a medicine in the UK.

At the BMA’s annual meeting, our members agreed that e cigarettes should be included in the ban on smoking in public places.

Progress in European Parliament

In October 2013, the European Parliament passed a draft law to introduce a raft of measures aimed at curbing tobacco’s appeal to young people, including regulation of e cigarettes.

E cigarette proposals

  • E cigarettes would be regulated, but not to the same rules as medicinal products unless they are presented as having curative or preventative properties
  • E cigarettes for which no such claims are made should contain no more than 30mg/ml of nicotine, carry health warnings and should not be sold to those aged under 18 years
  • Manufacturers and importers would have to supply a list of all ingredients
  • E cigarettes would be subject to the same advertising restrictions as tobacco products.

Find out more

Downloads

  • BMA briefing E cigarettes in public places and workplaces