If the legislation is signed into law Thursday, the capital city of Massachusetts would have one of the toughest tobacco control rules in the U.S. San Francisco, though, is one step ahead as it will implement later this month then ban on sale of tobacco products in pharmacies.
The proposed law also forbids smoking inside restaurants and bars with outside service. It targets to phase out cigar bars by 2013, although the law could take effect as early as 2009.
Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, pointed out that selling cigarettes at pharmacies do not make any sense.
While it was expected that tobacco firms would oppose the proposed law, drugstore chains surprisingly disapproved the sales ban on tobacco products. The pharmacies argued that it will unfairly limit their right to sell a legal product.
In reply, Ferrer said, "Why, in a place where people go to get healthy and get information about staying healthy, would you want to sell something that has absolutely no redeeming value and ends up killing a lot of people?"
However, Dr. Michael Siegel, tobacco control specialist at Boston University School of Public Health is pessimistic the legislation would be effective in curbing smoking especially among students who would simply buy cigarettes from other outlets.
