WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is praising CVS Caremark for its decision to stop selling tobacco products at its drugstores.
Obama says CVS is setting a “powerful example,” and says the decision will help his administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths and disease and bring down health care costs.
Obama is a former cigarette smoker. First lady Michelle Obama said in 2011 that her husband had finally kicked the habit.
CVS Caremark, the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain, said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost it about $2 billion in annual revenue.
Obama, in a statement released Wednesday by the White House, says CVS new policy “will have a profoundly positive impact on the health of our country.”
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- Marlboro cigarettes are on display in a CVS store in Pittsburgh. The nation’s second-largest drugstore chain says it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1 as it continues to focus more on health care. The move will cost the Woonsocket, R.I., company about $2 billion in annual revenue.
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