A very nasty catfight is raging between the patriarch of Quebec pharmacists and the organization that governs his profession.
Jean Coutu, founder of Le Groupe Jean Coutu, with 250 franchises across Eastern Canada, is at the front line. He will not heed the orders of the Quebec Order of Pharmacists that he butt out of the lucrative tobacco trade.
Yesterday, officials of the pharmacy chain called a press conference to deplore the order's "intransigence.''
Richard Mayrand, Jean Coutu's vice-president (professional activities), blasted the order for imperiling the future of countless pharmacies and their employees by decreeing they stop selling cigarettes immediately.
"I can't understand why the order is being so tough on its own members," Mayrand said.
He said the 600 or so pharmacies that sell tobacco stand to lose an average of $41,000 a year each in gross revenues by going cold turkey, and they need time to develop new markets, cut costs and rework their businesses to make up for the loss of cigarette sales.
The order, and the Tribunal des Professions, which oversees professional bodies, have found the Jean Coutu pharmacies guilty of contravening the pharmacists' code of ethics by selling tobacco products.
Jean Coutu is going to Superior Court on Aug. 3 to have that decision invalidated. It wants the right to keep selling cigarettes until the year 2000, when Quebec's anti-smoking legislation comes into effect.
To add drama of her own yesterday, the president of the Order of Pharmacists turned up unexpectedly and waited for reporters outside the chandeliered conference room after the meeting. While Mayrand was doing interviews with television reporters, Janine Matte was busy putting her own spin on the topic.
"You cannot in good conscience be a pharmacist and dispense medications from one hand and cigarettes from the other," she told reporters. "As pharmacists, we know the negative side-effects of smoking. We need to make a statement against tobacco use."
And she cited the 1,250 Quebec pharmacies, including the Brunet chain, that have already stopped selling cigarettes for ethical and health reasons. Jean Coutu is in the minority now, since more than 80 per cent of pharmacies no longer sell tobacco products, Matte said.
"It's more than five years now that pharmacists have been debating the topic of cigarette sales. There was plenty of time to adapt," she said.
But Mayrand argued it's unfair to make pharmacists give up a big part of their business without any grace period. And he said the pharmacists' code of ethics is too vague when it comes to the topic of selling cigarettes.
"What they are trying to do is bolster their public image," Mayrand charged. "The real solution is to begin looking for real answers to why Quebecers smoke."
He says removing cigarettes from 600 stores - out of 30,000 places where tobacco products can be purchased in Quebec - is a futile move. Mayrand suggested barring cigarettes from convenience and department stores, too, and setting up special outlets where sales could be more strictly controlled.