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Last Updated: Jan 31st, 2007 - 10:58:43 |
Pharmacy kicks 40-year habit
Feb 20, 2006, 15:55
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ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS- Forget hypnotism, nicotine gum or cold turkey.
When Bayshore Pharmacy kicked a nearly 40-year tobacco habit Tuesday morning, it didn't just flush a pack of smokes down the toilet. It dumped $1,000 worth of Marlboro Lights, Newports and Virginia Slims into a waiting municipal garbage truck. For pharmacists Richard P. Stryker and Scott Eagelton, the message could not have been clearer. "We provide health care, we provide things that make people feel better, then we sell them cigarettes," said Stryker, before handing over his cigarette retail dealers license to Assemblyman Steven J. Corodemus, R-Monmouth. "We don't need it anymore. We don't want it anymore." Bayshore Pharmacy is far from the first health-care provider to become tobacco-free. Though statistics are difficult to find, the New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution (NJ GASP) saw a pharmacy decide to stop selling tobacco nearly 20 years ago. But the group feels the message is still a strong one. "From time to time, I talk to colleagues about this issue, in other countries like Canada and England, (and) they say to me, "You mean, pharmacies sell tobacco?!,' with horror in their voice," said Regina Carlson, the group's executive director. "We think smoking should be made as expensive and inconvenient and as unattractive as possible, while still allowing consenting adults to make a stupid choice, because that's what freedom's all about." It may be less about choice at Bayshore Pharmacy than perception. Stryker — a former smoker whose spacious Route 36 pharmacy sold about 360 cartons of cigarettes a month — just doesn't feel right trying to keep northern Monmouth County healthy while peddling a product that can damage the heart and lungs. That line of thinking made sense to Corodemus, another former smoker who kicked the habit with the help of acupuncture. "It's a real statement, "We're so concerned about your health that we're not going to contribute to its downfall,' " said Corodemus, shortly before he helped dump the store's remaining stock of cigarettes Tuesday. "I think, of all the professions, pharmacists have the highest respect from their customers ... and that's indicative of what they're doing." Kim Falzone, who has worked at Bayshore Pharmacy for more than six years, also liked the idea of promoting a tobacco-free business. "I don't think we should promote anything that gives people cancer," said Falzone, 24, of the Belford section of Middletown. Others are less sure. While some groups say pharmacies shouldn't sell tobacco products, the state Board of Pharmacy, which licenses the state's 2,021 pharmacies, does not have a position on the issue. The National Community Pharmacists Association — a Virginia-based group representing 24,000 independently owned pharmacies nationwide — said only that its members should reassess the sale of tobacco in light of new federal efforts to control the substance. Vish Gadey, who owns Sun Ray Drugs and Medical in Middletown, said the issue also presents a tightrope walk for business owners who need to juggle patients' health with customers' desires to buy a product. "I wish I could stop selling tobacco," Gadey said. "(But) I have so many customers who have a habit of coming, buying their morning newspaper and cigarettes and lottery. I'm a little concerned about cutting their routines." Dave Bersch, a Keyport resident who has been smoking for 10 years, said growing restrictions on tobacco sales and use may be less about public health than personal choice. "It's totally against human rights, your right to do what you want to do," said Bersch, 30, as he smoked a cigarette in downtown Keyport Tuesday afternoon. "Everything now-a-days is, "You must be protected from everything.' But we don't have the right to decide what we want to be protected from." Joseph Sheffield, who works at Bigg Kahuna Cigars in Keyport, wishes restaurants, which this spring will face smoking bans, had the same freedom to decide for themselves as Bayshore Pharmacy. "It should be a choice," said Sheffield, 42, of East Brunswick. Stryker is hoping smokers who frequent his pharmacy now choose to quit the habit themselves. He's even nudging them along, offering discounts on smoking-cessation products like nicotine gum. 00012"I think cigarettes were 30 cents a pack when I started working here, and the same people who said they're going to quit at 40 cents (a pack) are still saying they're going to quit," the 41-year-old Middletown resident said. "It's still cheaper than a carton of cigarettes to get a week's worth of (smoking-cessation) patches. So there's no reason not to."
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