Each year the tobacco industry spends close to $8B on advertising and promotions at the point where tobacco products enter our communities. Many of these outlets are located in pharmacies where people trying to manage conditions worsened by tobacco use are seen each and every day. We would like to applaud CVS Caremark for taking a giant step forward, choosing to stop tobacco sales in 7,600 stores across the country by Oct. 1, 2014.

“We’ve come to the decision that cigarettes have no place in an environment where healthcare is being delivered.” said Larry Merlo, the chief executive of CVS Caremark. We agree.