The California Medical Association has joined with Prescription for Change, a project of the California Medical Association Foundation, to launch a statewide media campaign supporting tobacco-free pharmacies. As part of this statewide effort, the "Proud to be Tobacco Free" campaign was created as a way for California's health care providers, pharmacists and patients to work together and show they truly care about healthy communities by supporting pharmacies and chain drugstores that are tobacco free.
When tobacco is sold in such health care settings as drugstores, it sends a message, especially to our youth, that using tobacco is okay. In today's increasingly enlightened marketplace, it only makes sense that drugstores stop selling, promoting and profiting from people's use of tobacco - a known killer of over 480,000 Americans a year.
California's physicians and pharmacists now have a way to show they care about the health of their communities while supporting tobacco-free pharmacies.
More than 400 pharmacies throughout the state are participating in the campaign by displaying a "Proud to be Tobacco Free" decal in their windows. To support these pharmacies, physicians and other health care providers will use a corresponding prescription-pad sticker encouraging their patients to look for the "Proud to be Tobacco Free" window decal when filling their prescriptions.
Talk to your doctor and suggest that he or she participate in this important campaign. We also urge to you patronize tobacco-free pharmacies and spread the word to your friends and family about the "Proud to be Tobacco Free" campaign.
To access the list of tobacco free pharmacies in your county, please click here. Working together, physicians, pharmacists and patients throughout the state can now prove to chain pharmacies that Californians are no longer willing to tolerate drugstore policies that promote harming and healing at the same time.
In 1998, California Medical Association was a strong supporter of Proposition 10, the California Children & Families Initiative. The Proposition's 50 cents per pack increase in the cigarette tax will fund both tobacco education programs and comprehensive health services for children in their first four years of life.
By providing increased funding for tobacco education, Proposition 10 holds the promise of reducing smoking by another 33 percent, thereby saving the lives of thousands of Californians. The Initiative will also provide millions of California children with a solid foundation for healthy and productive lives.
The California Medical Association Foundation (CMAF) runs tobacco education programs, funded by the Tobacco Education Account of the California Department of Health Services.
To find out what else CMA is doing for you, click here.
Contact your local assemblyperson or senator.
Related Links
The Tobacco Control Resource Center & The Tobacco Products Liability Project
