Tales of the City: Banning Tobacco Sales in San Francisco Pharmacies

Mitchell H. Katz, MD is the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, the second largest health system in the nation. Previously, he was the Director of Health for the City and County of San Francisco for thirteen years. Prior to becoming the Director in San Francisco, he served the Department in a number of positions, including Director of the AIDS Office and Director of the Emergency Medical Services Agency. He practices medicine as a primary care doctor at Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center.

Karen S. Hudmon, DrPH, MS, RPh, CTTS, is Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy and Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy. She’s a licensed pharmacist and a cancer prevention researcher with 30 years of tobacco research experience and has personally provided tobacco cessation training to more than 30,000 health professionals.

Karen was one of the original authors of the Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation training program, which is used globally to train students and licensed clinicians to apply evidence-based approaches for helping patients quit. Currently, Karen’s research is funded by the NIH and the Indiana State Department of Health. She testified in favor of legislation to advance Indiana pharmacists’ role in prescribing cessation medications, was instrumental in drafting the statewide protocol, and is leading statewide training efforts.