Pharmacy chains asked to cease sale of cigarettes

With the right product labels, you can not only label items for the consumer’s benefit, but give everyone an idea of where a product was delivered or sold. This might be especially important if there’s something about your store that needs to be kept in mind to comply with government practices.

CNN reports that some of the biggest national pharmacy chains, including Safeway and Walgreens, are being asked by a coalition of states to stop selling “dangerous and devastating tobacco products,” period.

The request specifically comes from the Attorneys General of 28 different states, and is part of a growing movement that has already affected CVS, which earlier agreed to stop selling tobacco products in its stores. 

The Wall Street Journal noted the development as well, and featured a quote from Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General, in favor of this decision.

“Pharmacies and drugstores, which increasingly market themselves as a source for community health care, send a mixed message by continuing to sell deadly tobacco products,” he said. 

To express solidarity with this message, a drug company in a similar position could use pharmacy labels to distinguish medicines sold in pharmacies from those sold in other locations and create the sense of accountability that officials may be searching for.

According to Forbes, this decision is going to cost CVS billions of dollars in sales in the long run, but it appears to be worth it for the overall societal benefits.

Regardless of the labeling solution works best for your business and enables it to function at its peak, you can determine it for yourself once you have installed the right printing technology on your premises. Medications and other pharmaceutical items might need special labeling considerations because of the specific shapes of their containers.