Furious Australian pharmacists have hit back at a new Bill permitting consumers to buy plain-packaged nicotine vapes from pharmacies without a prescription, saying they are “healthcare professionals, not tobacconists”.
This week the government did an about-turn on its world-leading plan to outlaw all e-cigarette sales without a doctor’s prescription, with Health Minister Mark Butler announcing the new deal on Monday.
The strategy will water down a proposed vape ban so that his legislation, which will introduce tough penalties for unlicensed shops selling illegal vapes, can pass the Senate, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
The original hardline proposal that would have required a GP script for vape products did not have clear support.
The changes are a significant concession from Butler, who has invested political capital in the success of the world-first prescription-only model as he warned that vapes are a cynical ploy from Big Tobacco to hook a new generation on nicotine.
The last-minute changes have provoked the fury of pharmacists, who came out swinging against the new Bill.
“The … expectation that community pharmacies become vape retailers and vape garbage collectors is insulting,” a Pharmacy Guild spokesperson said.
“Everyone wants to keep illegal vapes out of the hands of kids and teenagers, but the Senate wants pharmacists to stock vapes next to children’s Panadol, cold and flu medicine and emergency contraception.”
Butler said the new laws would ensure vapes were used as they were marketed upon their creation: as an alternative for smokers, rather than a hobby for children.
“These laws protect young Australians and the broader community from the harms of recreational vaping,” he said.
“From Monday next week, it will be unlawful to supply, manufacture, import and sell a vape outside a pharmacy setting.”
The laws are expected to pass the Senate this week unless the Pharmacy Guild, one of Canberra’s most influential lobby groups, manages to alter the outcome.
The changes will make nicotine vapes a “pharmacist only” product governed in the same way as other behind-the-counter drugs – a downgrade from their “prescription only” status in Butler’s original plan.
People will first have to talk to a pharmacist, who will give them information on health harms and alternatives for quitting smoking. They must also show their ID to prove they are over 18.
There will be limitations on the nicotine content, and vapes will only be available in menthol, mint or tobacco flavour. Under-18s will still be unable to access the vapes without a script.
Butler had previously raised the idea of people buying vapes from a pharmacy without a prescription, but suggested that would be considered if the prescription-only model were not working.
The Pharmacy Guild strongly opposes the idea, particularly because no vaping products have yet been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and pharmacists would have to navigate the complex logistics of stocking unapproved products.
Health Department analysis of Butler’s original plan assumed the vaping policy would require almost 1m GP visits as 450 000 Australians were expected to seek prescriptions for vapes each year.
Nationals Party senator Matt Canavan, whose party has advocated for vapes to be sold like cigarettes, said the government’s shift represented a “complete reversal at high speed from the government’s failed prescription model”.
“Our pharmacists do not want to be, and should not have to be, tobacconists,” he said.
The Nationals had argued for a commercial model, backed by tobacco companies and the Australian Association of Convenience Stores.
The association’s chief executive, Theo Foukkare, described Monday’s changes as “a massive admission of failure by Health Minister Mark Butler on his own policy”.
“Instead of strictly regulating and taxing vaping products – the same as alcohol and tobacco – he has chosen to turn community pharmacists into quasi-government endorsed-tobacconists,” he said.
Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson insisted earlier on Monday that it was important the prescription-only model be given a chance to succeed.
“I don’t think we should just lie down and give up … Every peak public health body in this country supports the legislation [as it was before the amendments],” he said.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Australia bans disposable vape imports
Anti-vaping research drowns out harm reduction advocates in Australia
Australia bans ‘public health threat’ vapes