WORLD & NATION
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
CVS decides to discontinue sale of tobacco products
BY ROBERT PACHECO
Stam* Wiutbi
You know that ironic feeling you get when
you walk into a pharmacy to buy cigarettes?
It may soon be a thing of the past.
On Feb. 5, CVS Caremark, the nation's
second largest pharmacy chain, annoimced
plans to eliminate the sale of tobacco
products in their stores.
"The plan is to stop selling tobacco
products by Oct. 1," CVS Store Manager Colt
Sharpe told The Guilfordian. "We will be
first national drugstore chain in the United
States to no longer sell cigarettes."
The move to eliminate the sale of tobacco
products is popular among nonsmokers and
health care advocates.
According to Reuters, President Barack
Obama, a former smoker, praised CVS,
saying that the decision will enhance broader
efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths,
cancer and heart disease.
"Pharmacies shouldn't provide products
detrimental to your hedth," said Irene
Sullivan, former CVS employee. 'ThaPs
why it's illegal to sell heroin and cocaine,
two items diat were commonly sold by
pharmacies 100 years ago."
Although this opinion is commonly held
by nonsmokers, others find a major caveat
to the argument. Heroin and cocaine were
made illegal by legislation. Tobacco remains
a legal product.
"Is choosing not to sell cigarettes any
different than choosing not to seU birth
control?" asked Lucas Kempton '04. 'To me,
denying a legal product to your customer
because you don't agree with it is a violation
of citizens' rights."
Reuters reported that the decision might
cost CVS approximately $2 billion in revenue
annually.
After the annoimcement, CVS shares fell
1 percent. Larger rival Walgreens saw a 3.9
percent hike in share value, and Rite Aid
Corporation's stocks rose 2 percent. Both
Walgreens and Rite Aid will continue selling
tobacco products.
According to The Washington Post, CVS
runs over 750 MinuteClinics and is willing
to incur the short-term pain of losing
shareholders in order to position itself for
a long-term role in the new health care
marketplace created by the Affordable Care
Act.
"This move is an effort to embrace the
new health care marketplace and position
the corporation to provide health care to
individuals," said Sharpe.
"Health care is becoming more
decentralized, and consumers are getting
more choices about where to get care, whether
that's a retail clinic or a traditional hospital,"
said Vaughn Kauffman, a principal in PwC's
Health Industries Advisory Services, to The
Washington Post.
Although tobacco products are still legal,
data shows that tobacco is an industry whose
decline is reaching a point where it may no
longer be feasible to sustain sales.
According to Reuters, compared to the 43
percent of Americans that smoked in 1965,
only 18 percent smoke today. However,
tobacco-related diseases continue to cause
the highest death toll (480,000 deaths per
year) amongst all preventable causes of
death in the U.S.
'It's aU about the money," said Ziad Najjar,
owner of Royal Hookah Loimge in Quaker
Wlage. "CVS wiU do whatever makes them
money. Luckily for small business owners
like me, it opens up some of the marketplace.
"Many people are quitting smoking
and buying e-dgarettes from me for health
reasons," said Najjar. "Besides, pharmacies
shouldn't seU tobacco an)rways. They should
cure people, not make them Ul." ^
The growing impopularity of smoking,
in addition to the opportunity to provide
health care to customers, has led to the
groundbreaking move by CVS.
For smokers, the fact that tobacco is legal
may matter little if major corporations like
CVS begin to find ways to compensate for
the revenue of tobacco products. Capitalism,
not legislation, may be the reason tobacco
wiU become an obsolete product in the
American marketplace.
"Smoke 'em if you got 'em," said
Kempton. "You won't be able to get them for
much longer."
Moral Monday has protesters flooding streets of Raleigh
BY JAKE DELAHANTY
$TA«F Witrr»i
History was made on Feb. 8
when an estimated 80,000-100,000
people flooded the streets of
downtown Raleigh.
It was the Moral March on
Raleigh.
Jordan Green, editor of the Triad
City Beat, was amazed by the size
and diversity of protestors in the
rally.
"There were three or four city
blocks just jammed with people,"
Green said in a phone interview.
"It was a very diverse crowd.
Doctors in their white coats stood
alongside teachers, fast-food
workers and union members.
"Black, white, Asian, Latino,
yoimg and old — everyone was
there."
What sparked such a large
gathering in the state's capital?
Prior to the 2012 election.
Democrat and former Governor
Beverly Perdue vetoed
conservative legislation drafted
by a largely Republican General
Assembly.
Following the election.
Republican Governor Pat McCrory
took office while the General
Assembly became even more
homogeneous. This combination
enabled the state legislature to
pass its conservative legislation
with more ease.
The moral marchers' outcries
are directed towards this
legislation, which they claim caUs
for politicaUy driven changes like
gerrymandering.
"The new North Carolina map
packs Democrats into a small
munber of ultrasafe seats and gives
Republicans largely safe seats that
will be unlosable in anything but a
wave election," said David Weigel,
journalist for the Slate magazine,
in a recent interview with the
Washington Post.
Protesters are also rallying to
protect voting rights.
Last summer's voting
regulations, collectively
deemed "The Monster Laws,"
disenfranchised many minority
voters by demanding all voters
to present government-issued
identification at the polls.
"I'm not big on using the term
'voter suppression,' but it is
hard to see this law as justified,"
said Professor Rick Hasen at the
University of California at Irvine to
The Washington Post. "The intent
here is to m^e it harder for people
— especially non-white people and
those likely to vote Democratic —
to register or cast a vote that will
be counted."
Another goal for the protesters,
especially teachers and parents,
is education reform. The National
Education Association's 2013
school statistics reveal that North
Carolina is ranked 48th in terms
of money spent on supporting
students.
Additionally, Ehike University
researchers foimd that 30 percent
of public school students and 60
percent of charter school students
attend a racially unbalanced
school, a school with less than 20
percent or more than 80 percent
minority enrollment.
Other major issues on the minds
"There were three or four city blocks just jammed with people. It was a very
diverse crowd. Doctors in their white coats stood alongside teachers, fast-food
workers and Union members. Black, white, Asian, Latino, young and old -
everyone was there." /
Jordan Green, editor of the Triad City Beat
of the marchers were income
inequality, LGBTQQA rights,
women's rights, health care and
environment protection.
Will the Moral March have a
significant impact on the General
Assembly and future legislation?
Associate Professor of Political
Science Maria Rosales offered her
perspective.
'The event is significant in size
and in the ways it can energize
people," Rosales said in an email.
"However, it seems unlikely (that it
will) have more than minor effects
on immediate policies coming out
of Raleigh."
Reverend William Barber II,
president of the North Carolina
NAACP and leader of the
movement, enthralled the crowd
with his ke)mote speech at the rally.
"We are black, white. Latino,
Native American," said Barber.
"We are Democrat, Republican,
independent ... we are natives
and immigrants, business leaders
and workers and unemployed,
doctors and the uninsured, gay
and straight, students and parents
and retirees.
"We stand here as a quilt of
many colors, faiths and creeds."