Walgreens, Rite Aid to Raise Tobacco Buying Age -- Update
April 23 2019 - 7:52PM
Dow Jones News
By Aisha Al-Muslim
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Rite Aid Corp. are raising the
minimum age required for customers to buy tobacco products in their
stores to 21, up from 18 in most states, as the drugstore chains
face pressure over their cigarette sales from federal regulators,
activists and some investors.
The new chainwide policy for Walgreens will start Sept. 1, the
company said Tuesday. Walgreens's move is its most recent step in
its effort to further prevent youth access to tobacco products,
including a policy implemented last October that requires
verification regardless of age, the company said.
"We've seen positive results from other recent efforts to
strengthen our policies related to tobacco sales, and believe this
next step can be even more impactful to reduce its use among teens
and young adults," Richard Ashworth, Walgreens president of
operations, said in a statement.
Separately, Rite-Aid said Tuesday its policy raising the
cigarette-buying age would go into effect for all stores within
three months. The company had previously said it would remove
e-cigarettes and vaping products from its stores.
The new policies come as the efforts are under way in a number
of states to raise the legal age to use tobacco to 21. Currently,
about a dozen states have raised the tobacco buying age to 21,
along with at least 450 localities, according to the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids, an antitobacco nonprofit.
While Walgreens continues to sell cigarettes in the vast
majority of its 9,600 U.S. stores, the chain has been testing some
tobacco-free stores and is encouraging employees in others to offer
aids to quit smoking to customers buying cigarettes. The pharmacy
chain has also reduced the visibility of tobacco products in some
stores.
Unlike CVS Health Corp., which stopped selling tobacco products
in 2014, Walgreens has continued to sell cigarettes, electronic
cigarettes and other tobacco products in most of its stores,
drawing criticism from federal regulators, lawmakers as well as
activists who say that tobacco products don't belong in a health
store.
In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called out
the company out for being a top violator among pharmacies illegally
selling tobacco products to minors. In response, Walgreens said
that it has a zero-tolerance policy on selling tobacco to minors
and any employee violating its policy is subject to
termination.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he
planned to introduce legislation raising the national minimum age
to purchase tobacco products to 21 from 18. Mr. McConnell's
announcement comes as Congress is also studying legislation aimed
at curbing the surge in teen vaping.
Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, the two
biggest U.S. cigarette manufacturers, as well as e-cigarettes maker
Juul Labs Inc., all support raising the legal smoking age to 21.
The hope is that the move would curb underage smoking and the use
of e-cigarettes among youths.
Walgreens doesn't sell tobacco products at a test store in
Deerfield, Ill., near its headquarters, as well as 17 stores in
Gainesville, Fla., as part of a 12- to 18-month pilot program it
started last year. It also doesn't sell cigarettes in
Massachusetts, New York City and San Francisco, which have banned
pharmacies from selling them. Outside North America, the company's
Boots pharmacies don't sell tobacco products.
Write to Aisha Al-Muslim at aisha.al-muslim@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2019 20:37 ET (00:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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