

Another View: Marlboro Man was no match for tobacco

1:00 PM, Feb. 15, 2014  |  Comments
CVS Caremark, the nation's second-largest drugstore company, plans to pull cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products from its stores by October 2014.
  • Filed Under

Each year, about 92,900 Americans die of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive lung condition usually caused by cigarette smoking that makes it hard to breathe. One of 2014's statistics will be Eric Lawson, who succumbed to COPD at age 72 on Jan. 10.

Why is his death news? Mr. Lawson appeared as a Marlboro Man, the epitome of the rugged, healthy smoker, in print ads for the cigarettes from 1978 to 1981. He smoked from age 14 until he was diagnosed with the disease that took his life.

Mr. Lawson's is one of more than 443,000 annual deaths in the United States that are attributable to smoking - 7,800 of those are Kentuckians. [About 6,500 Louisianans die each year from smoking-related diseases.] Aside from the personal tragedies and losses associated with those staggering numbers, smoking also costs billions of dollars in lost productivity and health care each year. It is an industry catering to misery.

While many states including Kentucky, which pays dearly for smoking yet continues to dither and grapple with whether to enact a statewide smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants and bars, it is heartening to see a big player step forward and make some real news in the name of wellness.

CVS Caremark, the country's second-largest drugstore chain, has announced that its 7,600 stores will no longer carry cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco after Oct. 1. The company expects the shift to cost $2 billion in revenue from cigarettes and other purchases made by smokers, but it is making the change to reflect its evolving profile as being more than stores - rather as places people can go to improve their health.

The drugstore giant was presented with the nagging question of why it continued to sell tobacco products even as it teams with hospitals and doctors to provide health-care services at its stores. The phase-out of tobacco is its big answer to that question.

"We've come to the conclusion that cigarettes have no place in a setting where health care is being delivered," CEO Larry Merlo told The Associated Press.

President Barack Obama correctly hailed the move by CVS move as a "powerful example" for others to follow in reducing the nation's death toll from tobacco.

Others should follow CVS' admirable decision to remove from its shelves a product that kills people in such prodigious numbers.

By the time cigarettes get finished with them, people don't look anything like the Marlboro Man - not even the Marlboro Man.

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

No smoking

On Jan. 1, 2007, all Louisiana workplaces and restaurants became 100 percent smoke-free.

The state law also gives local governments the ability to expand smoke-free protections in their communities for areas not covered by the state law, such as bars. Alexandria was among the first cities to do so.

sign up for home delivery today

Real Deals



Photo Galleries