The unregulated market of vaping sales has led to another generation of nicotine addiction.
With the ease of import of these products through websites and vaping stores popping up across Australia, many of our youth now have to contend with the health condition of nicotine addiction.
The access to vaping products from pharmacies as a ‘Pharmacist Only’ product (not requiring a prescription) from October 1 has just passed the federal parliament, creating an outcry from many pharmacy bodies.
From now to October 1, vapes can only be accessed with a doctor’s prescription.
Though the federal government has passed this legislation, it is still the responsibility of each state to amend their own poisons schedule to reflect this change.
Certain states may wish to maintain the ‘Prescription Only’ status of vaping products or put up barriers to access through additional legislation and regulatory processes.
In Tasmania, a pharmacy needs to purchase a ‘Smoking Product Licence’ for over $600 yearly, financially preventing pharmacies like Geeveston being able to dispense nicotine vapes.
People have asked what the big deal is about selling vapes without prescriptions through pharmacies? The answer to this lies in the lack of robust evidence about the effectiveness of smoking cessation with vaping products and no evidence about its long-term safety.
Health products that are sold through pharmacies need to be registered with the TGA to ensure the product is safe and of high quality.
As it stands, there are no TGA registered vaping products in Australia.
Pharmacies are very well placed to help with treating nicotine addiction through advice, guidance and product optimisation.
What we truly need to help facilitate addiction treatment with vaping is a product that is registered as a health product with the TGA; proven to be safe and effective; and, provide a clinical framework to be able to promote cessation.
Australia has failed on all these counts.
Unfortunately, the legislation was rushed through parliament based on politics rather than providing real solutions to nicotine addiction due to vaping.
I strongly believe that pharmacists want to be the solution to the problem of nicotine addiction (smoking and vaping) but a lot more work needed to be done prior to the provision of a political stamp of approval.