Emotions run deep on both sides.
While all pharmacists agree that smoking can be deadly, the profession remains divided on whether that fact alone is reason enough to outlaw tobacco sales in pharmacies. It's not a tobacco issue, it's a government intervention issue. Those arguments are beside the point, says Jim Dunsdon, registrar of the Ontario College of Pharmacists, the first pharmacy regulator in Canada to successfully request a ban on tobacco in pharmacies. We do not regret the position we took, although it was divisive to the profession. Another argument Dunsdon often hears is that pharmacies should be the only ones selling tobacco, to better control its sale and counsel those who want to quit.