When the South Windsor town council meets on Monday night, they will consider an ordinance that would ban the sales of tobacco products at CVS.
In July Town Councilor Dr. Anwar Saud, who specializes in lung diseases and critical care medicine, proposed banning the sales of tobacco in pharmacies.
Nationally, there is a problem, he said in video posted on the town's Web site.
Some large pharmacies, which run “minute clinics,” sell cigarettes, while smaller, community pharmacies do not allow cigarette sales, he said during a council meeting over the weekend.
“So they are becoming healthcare facilities … but, as soon as you enter the facility, the first thing you that you can see most of the time is cigarettes being sold, and there is a trust factor for people in the community that they go to a facility, they are talking to a pharmacist, they are trying to seek advice from what type of medicines , what dose to use and then is what is being prescribed, and at the same time, at the same facility, same place, cigarettes are being sold, ” he said.
Some major cities prohibit pharmacies from selling cigarettes, he said.
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“People have the right to sell whatever they want, for the most part, but I think we need to expect a little bit more from ourselves and this community,” he said.
Mayor Tom Delnicki said in July that he finds cigarette smoking “disgusting” but has concerns about an ordinance on a single business that bans a legal product.
“At what point do we run into the slippery slope, cigarettes today, Slurpees tomorrow, Big Gulps the day after that?,” Delnicki said.
In a perfect world, the federal and state governments would outlaw cigarettes, the mayor said.
“To single out one business would be just plain wrong, no matter how well-intentioned it is,” he said.
It was ultimately determined that the town would seek an opinion from the town attorney.
CVS had no comment.
The work session will be held at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of South Windsor Town Hall.
