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Bahamas Pharmacies selling tobacco products spark industry debate
Related to country: Bahamas

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Pharmacies selling cigarettes ignite industry debate:
By VERNON CLEMENT JONES, Guardian Business Editor -
Nassau, Bahamas:



An apparent growth in the number of drugstores selling cigarettes is sparking debate among pharmacists, many concerned the practice compromises ethical guidelines while providing no real boast to the bottom line.

"About 80 percent of a Bahamian pharmacy's sales are directly from prescription drug," said Crystal Gibson, a local practitioner, "There's no need for pharmacies to get involved with selling something that actually harms the client-customers they are hoping to help."

Her comments come as another two of the country's 50 or more drugstores move to stock and sell tobacco products. They join at least three others scattered across downtown Nassau offering cigarettes and cigars in addition to their core service of dispensing drugs.

Government licensing of the latter does not, in fact, preclude the former. Still, the Bahamian trend runs counter to what's going on in an increasing number of U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions, where regulators have moved to block tobacco sales in pharmacies. Seven out of 10 Canadian provinces have moved to legislate an end to that trade, in just as many cases responding to the pleas of pharmacists as they were anti-smoking groups. Gibson would like to see this country follow that lead.

Some 95 percent of her U.S. counterparts share her point of view. They've been largely won over by research suggesting bans on tobacco in drugstores simply don't impair net income, rather create a level playing field for all pharmacies.

In fact, revenue at most North American drugstores is heavily weighted to the actual sale of prescription drugs, with Gibson and others in the local industry suggesting that's also the case here in The Bahamas.

That phenomenon means this sector is largely insulated from the kind of economic downturn now griping this and other Caribbean countries, pharmacist George Hepburn told Guardian Business this week.

A colleague of his points to the relatively inelastic nature of demand for pharmaceuticals to support the assertion that no matter how high drug prices climb relative to income, Bahamians continue to purchase their medication.

"If things are getting tough for them, as they are for some," he said, "then most people look to cut back in other ways first before cutting out their medications."

That may make it harder to explain why some Bahamian pharmacists are now adding known-carcinogens to their offerings.

Guardian Business calls to two of those drugstore owners/pharmacists were not returned Wednesday.

Hepburn would like to see the government and, indeed, his entire industry engage in a dialogue on the issue, although he argues the choice on whether or not to sell cigarettes must ultimately be left to the individual druggist.

As a U.S. trained and certified pharmacist, he's one of a minority of Bahamian professionals who've actually taken an oath all but forcing them to abstain.

April 25, 2008 | 6:41 PM Comments  0 comments

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