SF sued over cigarette sales ban; is Boston next?

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff

The country's largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, sued San Francisco in federal court yesterday, hoping to block that city's pending ban on drug-store tobacco sales.

In a statement, the company described the ban, set to go into effect Tuesday, as "unjust to manufacturers, retailers, and adult consumers because it bars -- without legitimate reason -- certain retailers from offering legal tobacco products to adult consumers who wish to buy them."

Mitch Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health was seeing patients this afternoon, but in an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle, he said: "Do you remember any part of the Bill of Rights being about pharmacies selling tobacco?" he asked. "Philip Morris has fought every attempt by public health officials to save lives by curbing smoking ... It's a badge of honor for anyone in public health to be sued by Philip Morris."

Boston is also attempting to ban cigarette sales in drug stores, as well as in groceries that have pharmacies. That prohibition is part of sweeping new rules governing the sale and use of tobacco that received preliminary approval earlier this month by the Boston Public Health Commission.

Boston's health chief, Barbara Ferrer, described cigarette sales in pharmacies as inherently incompatible with the stores' mission. Representatives of the nation's two biggest drug-store chains, Walgreens and CVS, said earlier they opposed the ban on the grounds that it would prevent them from selling a legal product.

A Philip Morris spokesman said in an e-mail response to a question that the company would not speculate on "what we might or might not do in the future related to our opposition to the Boston proposal." A spokeswoman for the Public Health Commission said her agency had no comment on the lawsuit.