Blumenthal to drug stores: don't sell cigarettes

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling on other drug stores to follow CVS’s lead and stop selling tobacco products.

The Connecticut Democrat and members of the Mobilize Against Tobacco for Connecticut’s Health Coalition are set to gather at a CVS in Hartford on Monday to urge all drug stores to sacrifice some profits but help save lives. He says smoking kills 480,000 Americans each year and cost the nation more than $289 billion from 2009 to 2012 in health care costs.