ICHP Position Statement - Tobacco, Tobacco Products, and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Vaping

The Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists supports the following positions:

  • Eliminate the use, distribution, and sale of tobacco, tobacco products, electronic nicotine delivery systems and other vaping products (e.g., vaporizers, vape pens, hookah pens, and electronic cigarettes and pipes) in and by pharmacies.1
  • Maintain smoke-free and vaping-free environments in meeting rooms and corridors at ICHP-sponsored events,1 in hospitals and other places where health care is delivered.2
  • Encourage pharmacists to collect information about vaping or e-cigarette use when conducting a medication history.3
  • Promote the role of pharmacists in tobacco cessation counseling and medication therapy management.1
  • Join other interested organizations in statements and expressions of opposition to the use of tobacco, tobacco products, and electronic nicotine delivery systems and other vaping products.1
  • Support the same governmental marketing and sales restrictions for electronic nicotine delivery systems that apply to tobacco cigarettes, e.g., no television advertising, no product placement in television or films, no celebrity spokespeople.2
  • Support increased federal, state, and local excise taxation of all tobacco products, including electronic-nicotine delivery systems.4
  • Support federal or state legislation that raises the minimum tobacco-purchasing age to 21 years.4
  • Support divestment by pharmacists and other healthcare professionals from tobacco, tobacco products, and electronic nicotine delivery systems stock and mutual holdings from their investment portfolio.
  • Support the education of its members about tobacco, tobacco products, and electronic nicotine delivery systems and other vaping products (including e-cigarettes) so that they can advise patients who use e-cigarettes about the potential danger of nicotine addiction and the potential hazards of dual use with conventional cigarettes or accidental ingestion of improperly stored e-cigarette liquid.5


  1. Professional Policies Approved by the 2016 ASHP Virtual House of Delegates. (http://www.ajhp.org/content/74/4/e95, last accessed 3/5/2021).
  2. AMA policy on FDA to extend regulatory jurisdiction over all non-pharmaceutical nicotine and tobacco products H-495.973.  (https://policysearch.ama-assn.org/policyfinder/detail/e-cigarettes?uri=%2FAMADoc%2FH, last accessed 8 /10/2017).
  3. AMA policy on electronic cigarettes, vaping, and health: 2019 update H-495.972.  (https://policysearch.ama-assn.org/policyfinder/detail/cigarettes?uri=%2FAMADoc%2FHOD.xml-0-4504.xml) , last accessed 03/05/2021).
  4. Smith TM. Physicians have key role in warning kids of e-cigs’ dangers.  (https://wire.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/physicians-have-key-role-warning-kids-e-cigs-danger, last accessed 8/11/2017).
  5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  E-cigarette use among youth and young adults.  A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD; 2016.


Revised 3/2021