As someone who grew up in a house with smokers, I hate it. Can’t stand it. I was actually glad when NC banned smoking inside restaurants. But that’s as far as it goes for me.
So when I read these state AGs are putting pressure on top retailers like WalMart to stop selling tobacco products, I want to tell them to but out. The legal products these stores sell is none of their business. If you want to encourage people to stop smoking, make a PSA or something. But to try and make a product less available seems to me to reek of a little fascism.
FOX NEWS – A group of 28 U.S. attorneys general is urging chief executive officers of five major retailers, including Walmart, to stop selling tobacco products, saying it is contradictory to carry such items in stores that also provide health care services.
The companies receiving a letter on Sunday from the group were Wal-Mart Stores Inc, supermarket operators Kroger Co, Safeway Inc, which operate pharmacies, and drugstore chains Walgreen Co and Rite Aid Corp.
“Pharmacies and drug stores, which increasingly market themselves as a source for community health care, send a mixed message by continuing to sell deadly tobacco products,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement on Monday.
None of the retailers immediately responded to a request for comment.
Schneiderman and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine led a group of 28 states and territories, including Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Puerto Rico and Guam calling for the change.