Selling Smoking And Tobacco Products Banned in San Francisco Pharmacies

Some big name pharmacies in San Francisco are upset because of a new law in town that prohibits them from selling tobacco. They probably know that this will mean their customers who come in for other items besides prescriptions and over the counter medicines will go elsewhere to get their tobacco. They think it is an unfair law, but the city says that a pharmacy is no place to be selling a product like tobacco when their business is supposedly mainly to provide health products.

I guess it could be a debatable point for them because other famous department stores, and we will not mention any names, also have pharmacies in their stores and will this law mean that they are no longer allowed to sell tobacco products as well? It would seem unfair to not allow one store that contains a pharmacy and sells a multitude of other items as well to be prohibited from tobacco sales when other larger stores also with pharmacies are left alone to continue their tobacco sales.

It is said that the law will still allow grocery stores to sell tobacco products because they are not primarily promoting health products even though they sell them too and some grocery stores also have pharmacies. Although no one wants to promote the use of tobacco, since it is not illegal, except for those under the age of eighteen, why are they making it against the law for some stores to sell and not all of them, especially when some of the stores are so similar in what they are selling overall?

This might be a case where there are actions taken to have the law reversed or it could be expanded to include other businesses as well. It appears to be similar to the laws in some places concerning the sale of alcohol. Some restaurants are allowed to and some are not. Some stores are allowed to and some are not. There must be at least some profit in selling alcohol and tobacco or so many places would not want to participate in selling it in the first place. The question is exactly who are the people in charge of determining which businesses get to sell alcohol and tobacco and which businesses do not.

The country is supposed to be based on equality and it is hard to see where the equality is when discriminatory decisions like these are being made that exclude some businesses and willingly include others. It is not certain whether this law will go unchallenged or not.