Starting today, CVS is no longer selling tobacco in any of its stores. The pharmacy made the announcement on February 1^st that it planned to drop sales due to tobacco conflicting with its health-care mission. According to USA Today, CVS will be changing its corporate name from CVS/Caremark Corp. to CVS Health, though its retail stores will still be called CVS/Pharmacy.

Originally planning to drop tobacco sales by October 1^st, the pharmacy is a month ahead of schedule and is making clear its commitment and desire to change the future health of Americans. However, the sales drop comes with a price. In an interview with Forbes, chief executive officer Larry Merlo said it would cost the company about $2 billion in annual sales, which is about 3% of company revenues.

The New York Times reports that CVS is trying its best to appeal to medical partners and help bridge the gap between customers and their doctors. Skip Snow, a health care analyst at Forrester Research, commented, "If [CVS] can be perceived as a place to go to receive health care, and buy health care products, as opposed to the place to go to buy a bottle of whiskey or get your film developed, they can capture more of the retail medicine dollars," suggesting some of the thinking behind the momentous decision.

In the past, CVS has been subject to pressure from public health advocates like the American Medical Association due to its selling of products known to harm public health. Forbes reports that perhaps dropping tobacco sales wasn't a bad decision after all - Merlo has divulged that the company has already computed "5.4 billion in new business wins for 2015." He went on to say, "We offer a lot of benefits for clients and that is resonating in the marketplace," explaining the surge in deals.

According to USA Today, CVS will also be launching a smoking-cessation campaign that will include education, medication, and support to help curb the desire to use tobacco. So far, no other CVS competitors such as Walgreens and Wal-Mart have decided to stop selling tobacco, but the historic decision has sent a clear message that pharmacies should no longer be selling tobacco.