Report: San Francisco supervisors OK tobacco sales ban at pharmacies

SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco’s board of supervisors voted for an expansion of the city’s anti-tobacco law, according to published reports.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the supervisors gave preliminary approval to a law to expand a law passed in 2008 to ban tobacco sales at drug stores to include all retailers that operate pharmacies, including mass merchandisers and supermarkets.

The original law had attracted opposition from Walgreens and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores on the grounds that it discriminated against drug stores. Supporters of the law asserted that its purpose was to rectify what they saw as the contradictory nature of a healthcare institution, such as a pharmacy selling an unhealthful product.

Asimilar law was enacted in Boston around the same time as the San Francisco law, though the Boston law banned tobacco sales at all retailers that operate pharmacies.