Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

By Kathryn Eident and Matt Rocheleau, Globe Correspondents

Starting this October, Needham’s pharmacies will no longer be selling cigarettes and other tobacco paraphernalia to local residents.

It is the third Massachusetts community to do so. Boston voted to ban sales last year, followed by Uxbridge, according to a local anti-tobacco activist. State legislation has also been filed.

“We certainly are supportive of it,” said Russet Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass. referring to the ban passed in Needham. “We think there’s a contradiction for pharmacies profiting from tobacco sales.”

For those who would argue that such restrictions won’t prevent people from smoking, she said, “It’s a step in the right direction.”

The Needham Board of Health voted 2-0 Tuesday to ban cigarette sales in local health-care institutions, saying that the sale of tobacco products conflicts with their mission to promote health and well-being, said Board of Health Chairman Dr. Stephen Epstein.

“It’s a comprehensive tobacco control regulation,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re not just regulating sale of cigarettes but all tobacco products in town.”

The ban primarily affects the three pharmacies in Needham, though these stores were not singled out in the new regulations, he said.

The new rules are consistent with state regulations allowing pharmacies with in-store clinics to be considered health-care institutions, and are modeled after initiatives to ban cigarette sales in Boston and San Francisco, he said. The rules are in addition to local regulations that prohibit the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21, he said.

(Read Globe coverage of Boston’s ban on cigarette sales in pharmacies, HERE.)

“We looked at the regulations and were concerned with the marketing of new tobacco based products containing nicotine to minors, blunt papers in particular,” Epstein said. “Many of many of these products are flavored, packaged attractively and don’t taste like tobacco.”

The Needham vote comes after several months of public hearings and deliberations, he said. The Board’s third member, Dr. Peter Connolly, was absent from the meeting and did not vote, though he has expressed support for the regulations in the past, Epstein said.

“I’m reasonably confident he’s in support of this measure,” he said.

The new Needham regulations take effect on October 1st.

Meanwhile, legislation for a statewide restriction on the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies has a “very favorable outlook,” according to Don Siriani, Sen. Susan C. Fargo’s chief of staff.

Fargo, D-Lincoln, and Rep. Sean Garballey, D-Arlington, support identical bills filed in January titled, “An Act Restricting The Sale Of Tobacco Products At Locations Where Health Professionals Are Employed.”

“The bill has a lot of support in the House and the Senate,” said Garballey.

Fargo hopes the bill, which is currently in committee, will reach the Senate floor by the upcoming fall, though “it’s impossible to say,” when the bill could reach the governor’s desk for final approval, Siriani said.

According to the legislation, “The Act shall take effect on October 1, 2010,” if approved.

“The concept here is that people go to a pharmacy to maintain or increase their health … there are no other products in pharmacies that have a detrimental impact to a person’s health the way tobacco does,” said Siriani.

“It’s a unique bill in terms of restricting where a product can be sold,” he added. “[But], it’s not meant to stop people from smoking.”

The legislation is also supported by the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), which testified in favor of the bill on June 16 before the Joint Committee on Public Health.

“The Society said it recognizes that this legislation would not end the sale of tobacco products, but it said it ‘would send an important health message to our patients and be another step in saving lives and in reducing illness and the cost of health care in the Commonwealth,’ according to a statement from MMS.

The bills are Senate Bill 813 and House Bill 2054.

The Uxbridge Board of Health passed Article XXVI, “Board of Health Regulation Restricting the Sale of Tobacco Products in any Educational or Health Care Institution” on May 7, which went into effect on July 7. Pharmacies are included under “health care institution.”