For this weeks post I've decided to take a break from the popular political debates and talk about an issue that may be hidden from public eye. I came across
this article that talked about how CVS will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco related items by October, 2014. This out of the blue declaration have got many concerned, mostly because now consumers will have one less drugstore to buy cigarettes from! What caused this sudden action? CVS has decided to take a step towards providing better health care. As many know, CVS has MinuteClinics that supply vaccinations to people and helps with minor illnesses. By having cigarettes in the store it sends off a hypocritical vibe to the public.
Get the flu vaccination and other preventive medicines in our MinuteClinic, but don't forget to pick up our tobacco products on the way out! Such signals keep the direction of this drug store company at stagnant. The ideal goal of CVS is for other related companies to emulate their actions and take the same initiative to stop selling cigarettes. The executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS understands, "that the average person will just find somewhere else to buy cigarettes," but also understands their prescience of climbing in a direction of promoting health care by limiting the products of cigarettes, which can lower the number of smokers. By limiting the access to lethal products, it can ultimately lead to a decrease of premature deaths. Many may be thinking that if CVS stops selling cigarettes then their sales will decrease, right? Well CVS realizes this and hopes that their future decrease in revenue will be balanced through a newly created "smoking cessation program". This program, created by the CVS company, has a goal to get Americans to stop smoking, which they will market towards insurance plans whom would pay for this health program.
Now, lets put on our sociological lenses and see if we can find the core problems that arise from this. One of the most obvious controversial red flag is waving; rights! Where are the rights for the citizens of America? Many look at this and see their privileges being taken away; one less available option to purchase tobacco products. The many common questions are, "Why should companies or the government decide if I should smoke or not?" "Why can't I make that decision on my own?" and "I should be able to make the choice of if I want to damage my own health." Another way to look at it from a rights perspective would be from the views of those against the selling of cigarettes. Many times people are smoking in front of other people because it's a "free country", which can cause secondhand smoke and be a factor in the limitation of citizen's rights for those against the production of tobacco products. A person's health can be affected when they haven't consented to it. As you can see there are two different perceptions of where rights stand between citizens. Through this decision you can also see CVS developing as a company. CVS took a huge risk in deciding to not sell tobacco products in order to promote a health awareness title for their company. However, if we take a closer look we can also infer that if CVS knew that ceasing to sell tobacco products would result in a major economic loss for the company, they probably wouldn't have taken the jump. Which makes you question if it was an economic step or a health awareness step. Their sale revenue from their tobacco products must have been low, or at least low enough to know that their company wouldn't sink big time. At the end of the day a company wants to make money, and they won't take a step to helping others if they didn't benefit from it too.
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