Will eliminating cigarettes from pharmacies make a difference?

It was no joke, last Friday was the start of a ban that took the sale of tobacco products out of locations where a pharmacy exists.

That move seems like a no-brainer. A pharmacy is a place of health where people go to get help and try and make themselves better. They go for many reasons like infections like a cold or a cut, or to try and lose weight, even quit smoking and in order to get into the pharmacy or out they have to walk past the cigarettes, the sticks that can cause cancer or bad breath, make people reek of smoke and create an unhealthy environment for people to be in.

This move is applauded, along with the move by the same government to ban smoking in vehicles with children under the age of 16; around doorways, windows and air intakes of public buildings as well as banning tobacco use on school grounds.

However, one has to wonder how effective it is going to be in curbing the aromatic habit with those that do it.

Firstly, tobacco is an addiction, one of the most difficult things to do in life is to kick an addiction. There are entire medical complexes designed, built and staffed for the sole purpose of helping people beat addictions. Of course there would be no need for these places if people just did not abuse addictive substances in the first place.

Secondly, if you remove one place where a person can purchase something, regardless of what it is, they are going to find another place to get it, especially if they are addicted to it.

If a person is addicted to slushy, sugary drinks and suddenly 7-11 stopped selling them, people would go to the Co-op gas bar or Shell or any other place to get them.

This move to prohibit the sale of cigarettes comes on the heels of the provincial government limiting places where people can smoke in public, like not near doors or windows or air intakes of public buildings. Tobacco is also not to be used on school grounds.

They have also, in a way, limited where people can smoke in private, it is not allowed in a vehicle with children under 16-years-old.

All this legislation is being done, according to the provincial government, to create a healthier Saskatchewan. However, as was stated earlier, tobacco is an addiction and if you cut in half the number of places where cigarettes can be sold, it will just drive more business to the remaining places.

The government of Saskatchewan wants to build a healthier place for people to live through prevention and cessation of smoking, however all this latest move is doing is hurting businesses.

Yes, pharmacies are a medical place, but taking away some of their product, regardless of what it is, will hurt the bottom line.

And as noble a cause as it is to want everyone in Saskatchewan to quit smoking, that would have a huge impact on government money. There is a big chunk of money that goes into government coffers from the sale of tobacco and tobacco products and having everyone quit smoking would mean less money for the government to operate.

In the end, tobacco sales are a necessary evil because there are many people who benefit from their sales, it is just unfortunate that the benefit has to come at the expense of causing harm or even killing, some of the people in this province.