CVS Wont Sell You Smokes

CVS Caremark announced this Wednesday morning that it will cease all tobacco product sales across the U.S. by October 1, 2014.

According to the company, this will make CVS "the first national pharmacy chain to take this step in support of the health and well-being of its patients and customers.

CVS currently has 7600 pharmacy locations across the country, but this stop of sales won't really make it harder to find cigarettes for sale. According to Euromonitor International, drugstores like CVS only sold 4% of the total retail volume in 2012.

So why are they doing this? Although only about 18% of adults smoke today, the habit still leads to more than an estimated 480,000 deaths and costs the healthcare system $289 billion in treatment each year.

According to CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry J. Merlo, it should be CVS Caremark's duty as a provider of healthcare products to ensure the products they provide only promote the health of their customers.

"Put simply," Merlo said in this morning press release, "the sale of tobacco product is inconsistent with our purpose."

But Merlo isn't just stopping there. It has been revealed that CVS will be launching an anti-smoking campaign this spring in addition to the removal of tobacco sales.

So far, the program is expected to focus primarily on providing aid that will help customers quit smoking, such as online resources and informational pamphlets.

With this move, CVS joins an already growing movement against tobacco use which started within the last few years. State programs, such as the hugely successful Californian "Tobacco Free CA" and the soon to launch $115 million FDA project "The Real Cost" dwarf CVS Caremark's efforts, but will certainly still benefit from the nationwide cut in available cigarette providers come October.

CVS Caremark estimates the loss of tobacco sales will cost them approximately $billion in annual revenue, but the company assures investors that the company is exploring opportunities to offset this impact on profit.