Have you heard? Have you heard?No Smoking | Bukovina Naturopathic Medicine

I almost thought it was a joke when I first heard the news a couple of days ago, but it’s true! CVS, one of the nation’s biggest drug stores is going to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products. Their plan is to have all of these products out of their stores by October of this year. This may not stop people from smoking, but if other stores follow along, it will certainly encourage it.

In the 50th Anniversary Surgeon General Report on smoking and health it states that, “Nearly 500,000 Americans die each year due to smoking, and smoking costs us $289 billion dollars annually…If we fail to reverse course, 5.6 million American children alive today will die prematurely due to smoking.”

I’ve never smoked before, but I do understand the power of addictions. There are just so many things available now to help people quit smoking. There are natural methods to help balance neurotransmitters and stop cravings. There are e-cigarettes which are incredibly useful when used appropriately. And, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would even rather people use Wellbutrin than smoke (while moving quickly toward stopping the medication by fixing the underlying imbalance, of course).

The bottom line is that my hat is off to CVS!!