CVS and Tobacco, Do they Really Care?

So, CVS is going to stop selling Tobacco Products! CVS Cares, the “Health Care Company”, or so they tout.

I’m not going to defend tobacco products in general since of course there is health risk. I would think everyone on this planet, and maybe a few other planets know this by now.

I’m also not going to dictate what a store can, or can’t… should, or shouldn’t sell in their store.

However, I just love when big companies make health choices for people, especially ones that are just so… marketable. They claim they are trying to market themselves as a health care company… However they aren’t doing away with their Liquor section, the junk food section, the soda. We won’t even delve into all the crap that comes out of the pharmacy in the name of health. Have you watched those pill commercials? Everyone in them are the pictures of health after they take that golden little pill while the small print voice over guy, in as fast a speak he can do, talks about coma, death, heart attack, cancer and and all the other just mere side effects one may experience. But hey… talk to your Dr. about taking it cause a zit on your chin may just be worth the cancery side effect yes? Then of course there is the couple that sits in separate bathtubs, in the woods, after her man has supposedly had the erection of his life. (I still don’t get the bathtub reference. Is it because he was hard as porcelain? Is it because after all that sex they needed a bath, outside, in the woods? Get it, the woods?)

Smokers, eventually, have health problems. We all know that. Emphysema, Heart trouble, Lung Cancer… They are all out there for you to enjoy later in life if you choose to partake in the smoke. Health Insurance companies make you pay more if you are a smoker. I have even heard the argument that the reason health care costs are so high for everyone is because of smokers. However, what about the other non-related smoking health risks that seem to get ignored by the majority of the population? Let’s talk obesity for a second. Obesity, the number one cause of Diabetes Type II related illness. Aside from all the health problems diabetes brings, there are knee problems, back problems, breathing problems, injuries. These are problems that can start in mere childhood, prompting an influx of Doctor visits, Hospital visits etc. Yet, if you are a smoker, check this box. YOU are the problem with health care costs, because we know, at the end of your life 30, 40, 50 years down the road, you will need more care than you do now. Plus, smoking smells and a lot of people just don’t like it. Course I don’t appreciate the smell of day old alcohol pouring out of people’s pores, but I guess that’s just me.

I could go on the theory that what CVS is doing is a step in the right direction, and really, it is a good thing I guess, but it is the only step they will take. They will never do away with the liquor, the junk food. It makes them way too much money. It’s real easy to get rid of one product and call yourself a “Health Care Company”, it’s a whole other thing to actually be one.

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