|
What
is Prescription for Change All About?
Setting
a New Standard.
As difficult
as it is to imagine, as recently as 12 years ago, it was normal
for hospitals to sell tobacco. Fortunately, in the 1990s,
hospitals recognized the inherent contradiction of profiting
from the sale of the number one cause of preventable death
in America – tobacco – in the same setting that
health care is provided. As a result tobacco was voluntarily
removed from hospitals.
Just
like hospitals, California's Pharmacies and Chain Drugstores
are in the health care business.
Pharmacies
and chain drugstores are places where California families
go to fill their everyday healthcare needs. In fact, California
consumers regard pharmacists as the forth most trusted source
of health information (behind only physicians, nurses and
medical books). The problem is, an alarming number of drugstores
continue to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products—right
alongside asthma inhalers, cough medicine and prescription
drugs.
In
this singular act of hypocrisy, pharmacies are legitimizing
tobacco use to our kids.
That's
why Prescription for Change, a project of the California
Medical Association Foundation, along with over 100 healthcare
professionals, voluntary health organizations and community
leaders are urging California's pharmacies and chain drugstores
to end the sale of tobacco in their stores. Because no company
should profit from healing and harming us at the same time!
A
Little History
The California
Medical Association Foundation's project, Pharmacy Partnership,
began in 1995. From its inception, this project worked with
independent pharmacies to remove tobacco products from their
stores. After realizing a nearly 80% success rate (currently
78% of independent pharmacies in California are tobacco free),
the Partnership shifted its focus to chain drugstores.
Pharmacy
Partnership soon discovered that chain drugstore management
was less willing than its independent counterparts to engage
in cooperative discussions on this issue. It was clear that
the lack of interest in our efforts by chain drugstore management
was a major stumbling block toward continued progress.
In the
fall of 1999, Pharmacy Partnership launched a media campaign
asking Rite Aid to discontinue the sale of tobacco in their
California stores. This media effort was designed to focus
attention on the unhealthful business practice of tobacco
sales and promotions in all pharmacies and drugstores. Our
attention was focused on Rite Aid (the largest chain drugstore
in California) to specifically address one group of corporate
leaders in this industry.
A Bay
Area press conference featured speakers from the American
Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer
Society and the San Francisco City/County Department of Public
Health. A full page advertisement ran in the New York Times
Western Edition and a mobile billboard traveled throughout
the Bay Area requesting that California consumers call Rite
Aid and ask that they stop selling tobacco products. Pharmacy
Partnership received media coverage throughout the state;
the story was covered in print, radio and on-line media. Later
that month, two educational leafletings were held in front
of Rite Aid stores in Oceanside and Oakland to educate consumers
about drugstores selling tobacco products.
One of
the most successful achievements of the Pharmacy Partnership
to date has been the establishment of a 114 member Pharmacy
Media Coalition. The ideas and commitments of the very energized
Coalition have caught the attention of senior level chain
drugstore management, state tobacco control leaders, state
health officials, the major voluntary health organizations
and most importantly, the attention of California consumers.
Pharmacy
Partnership Takes a New Name... Prescription for Change
The
Pharmacy Partnership Project relaunched as Prescription for
Change in July 2000. Prescription
for Change will continue to work in, and expand upon, many
of the same areas that the Pharmacy Partnership addressed.
Areas of primary focus will include: increasing pharmacist
involvement in tobacco control activities; increase the number
of pharmacies and chain drugstores that discontinue the sale
and promotion of tobacco in their stores; increase physician,
heath care provider and pharmacist involvement in the "Proud
to be Tobacco Free" campaign and be a statewide resource center
on information about tobacco free pharmacies.
The
Next Steps…
Prescription
for Change is geared up and excited to continue working on
our project goals. We welcome you to explore our website in
order to familiarize yourself with more of our project goals
and activities. Our plans for the future include:
- Promoting
tobacco free pharmacies through community awareness events
- Facilitating
public education campaigns, advertisements and media coverage
that focus on increasing consumer awareness about pharmacies
selling tobacco
- Developing
model grassroots activities that can be adopted by communities
to educate local consumers about tobacco free pharmacies
and that encourage pharmacies to eliminate tobacco advertisements
and products from their stores
- Training
pharmacist spokespersons to make presentations, attend events
and interact with the media, consumers and policy makers
to promote tobacco free pharmacies and drugstores
- In
collaboration with coalition member agencies, continue negotiations
with chain management to encourage corporate policies that
support the elimination of tobacco sales in California's
drugstores and pharmacies.
Contact
Information
Prescription
for Change
P.O. Box 7690
San Francisco, CA 94120-7690
Phone:
415/882-3327
E-mail:
cfenlon@cmanet.org
Return
to top of the page
|
