Physicians' Group Pushes Pharmacist Colleges and Governments to Deal with Tobacco Sales in BC,Saskatchewan & Manitoba

Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada is mounting an offensive against sales of tobacco products in pharmacies, in the last 3 Canadian provinces that permit such sales.

The organization is using 2 approaches: calling on the governments of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to introduce legislation to prohibit pharmacy tobacco sales, and filing formal complaints to the Colleges of Pharmacists in each province.

The complaints claim that selling cigarettes and other tobacco products violates the professional ethical standards of pharmacists, says Dr. Charl Els, Alberta Director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.

“We do recognize that often, the pharmacist may not be the individual making the actual choice about whether the pharmacy will carry tobacco,” said Dr. Els, in an interview with the CPJ. “On some level they are caught in the middle … but the bottom line is, domestic and international codes of practice for health care professionals would frown upon pharmacists or any professional profiting from a product which causes death and disease.”

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‘I do believe that in both Quebec and Alberta, the complaints to the Colleges actually forced the issue to a burning point’

— Dr. Charl Els, Alberta Director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada

Complaints to colleges effective in the past Effective January 1, 2009, Alberta became the first Western province to ban tobacco sales in pharmacies. The ban also covers grocery stores containing pharmacies. The legislation instituting the Alberta ban was passed in January 2008, following a concerted push from Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and other health groups. In that province, the physicians' organization filed a complaint with the Alberta College of Pharmacists (ACP), naming 5 pharmacists. (The College would only investigate if specific pharmacists were named.)

“As a result of the College's investigation, one pharmacist voluntarily removed the tobacco from his outlet and not too long after, we saw a call for legislation and then, Bill 45,” says Dr. Els. Over a decade ago in Quebec, he adds, a complaint to the Quebec Order of Pharmacists preceded provincial legislation that ended pharmacy sales of tobacco.

“A complaint is a way from the outside to place pressure on the Colleges and provincial governments to address this issue,” he says. “I do believe that in both Quebec and Alberta, the complaints to the Colleges actually forced the issue to a burning point.”

Now, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada is counting on this strategy to make tobacco sales in pharmacies a thing of the past across the country. (Yukon still allows the sales and the organization plans to take action eventually in the territory as well.)

“We need extraordinary action in order to protect pharmacists from what I believe they have been caught in and to protect the public,” says Dr. Els. “We are committed to seeing this issue through to the end. It's a very important public health goal for us.”

In line with their normal practice, the Colleges are not commenting publicly about the complaints.