Retailers oppose proposal to ban cigarette sales in B.C. pharmacies

WATCH: Could tobacco be banned in retail stores with pharmacies? Elaine Yong reports.

British Columbia is the only province in Canada where you can still get tobacco products in pharmacies.

Retailers would like it to stay that way.

A number of large chains, including London Drugs, Safeway, and Overwaitea, have signed a letter to the College of Pharmacists of B.C., criticizing their proposal to ban tobacco where pharmacists work.

They argue it should be a decision left up to the provincial government, and say that people coming to buy tobacco products often get cessation products as well.

“We encourage the college…to join London drugs and other retailers on focusing on smoking cessation, instead of a jurisdiction issue which we feel is not in their purview,” says Clint Mahlman, London Drugs COO.

“They’ve chosen tobacco because they know it’s a lightening rod.”

Last year, Manitoba became the last province other than B.C. to remove tobacco from pharmacies.

READ MORE: Manitoba stores prepare to butt out

Bev Harris of the B.C. College of Pharmacists says it’s high time for the province to join the rest of Canada.

“It’s our mandate to regulate pharmacies, so we have the mandate to do that, because we protect the public and give the best health care they can,” she says.

“We simply can’t…sell a product that kills and sell prescriptions that cure. they argue the product is legal; it’s lethal.”