Walgreens files injunction to halt tobacco sales ban

SAN FRANCISCO Less than a month after San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom put his signature on a law to ban retail pharmacies from selling tobacco products, a national chain wants to stop it.

Attorneys for Walgreens have requested an emergency injunction with the San Francisco Superior Court to stop the law from going into effect and hope to have it heard Tuesday. The law is scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1.

Walgreens and several other chains have called the proposed ban unfair because it applies only to retail pharmacies, but not to big-box stores or supermarkets. The chains and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores have also questioned the law’s efficacy, saying that people will simply go elsewhere to buy tobacco products.

Health officials in neighboring Marin County have proposed a similar ban, as have officials in Boston.