Drug stores wrong to sell cigarettes
Customers can still pick up prescription medications with a side order of cigarettes at their local pharmacy.
Considering the mission of pharmacies to help people heal, it is a wonder that pharmacies sell cigarettes at all. In some places they don't.
The board of supervisors for the city of San Francisco voted last October to ban cigarette sales at 70 pharmacies across the city. It put teeth in its decision by enacting a $1,000 fine for drug stores caught selling tobacco. The decision, which affected mom-and-pop stores as well as large pharmacies like Rite-Aid, did not negatively impact businesses, because none of them sold cigarettes. No business owner had an unfair advantage by offering smokes.
Pharmacists as a group do not support tobacco sales, according to one study released by the Yale University School of Medicine. Results showed 23.6 percent of pharmacists were mildly against selling tobacco, and another 58.2 percent strongly opposed it, while 16.7 percent remained neutral.
Some pharmacies in New York state have voluntarily chosen not to sell cigarettes. That is an indicator of trends to come.
Everybody is so upset about the high cost of medicine and yet pharmacies sell cigarettes at a cost of $65 per carton or more. It doesn't make sense for pharmacies to sell tobacco products, which, if used as directed, will make people sick.
Meanwhile, New York residents are footing the bill for Medicaid costs for treating smokers.
The annual health care costs in New York directly caused by smoking is $8.17 billion, and the portion covered by the state Medicaid program is $5.4 billion, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Marcia Kozubek
Oneonta
Kozubek is project coordinator for Rural Three for Tobacco Free Communities.
We should bicker over health care
So, President Obama says the time to stop bickering has come. Just give me and my boys $900 billion and your worries will cease, regarding federal health care. We're from the federal government and we're here to help you. Been there and heard that before! Obama doesn't really tell us much about how it will work, but rest assured, it will work, because he says so.
Somebody should tell our president that we already have a program for health care _ called Medicaid and administered by all states and the federal government. This system certainly is not the best, but could be reformed to meet health care needs of all Americans and the cost would probably be much less than the requested $900 billion!
The president should be told that we live in a democracy and if people, politicians included, want to bicker (disagree), it's their constitutional right to do so! He reminds me of the kid who owns the bat and ball and tells his friends they can only play if they follow his rules.
The old government adage has always been "throw money at it and it will go away!" Well, guess what? I hope that all concerned Americans keep on bickering and bring this fiasco to a halt. That $900 billion comes out of our pockets and I, for one, don't want it spent on some "far out" health care system that will steal our tax dollars without even knowing if it will work!
We Americans pay the freight and are promised that all will be well with Obama's new toy! I, for one, do not believe his program should become law until we know exactly what it's made of. It's like buying a car and never driving it before the buy is made. God help us!!!
Simon Jackson
Oneonta
Better plan needed for memorials
Regarding the park trees and the memorials, the plan is too rigid, wasteful, expensive and lacks vision.
My suggestion is to dump the modern plan. Keep the old trees, plan the memorials around the old trees. We may need to add memorials in the future.
I suggest that you divide the present number of memorials by the number of old trees. Arrange memorials with a visitor's bench in such a way that future memorials may be added. The bench should be placed at a right angle to the memorial and a few feet away from the memorial for viewing.
Do take advantage of these old treasures to create a sensitive, shady, contemplated, dedicated area.
Mary Buck
Colliersville
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