Stop the TGA’s Attack on Vapers

New regulation on vaping

The Commonwealth Department of Health has lodged an application to amend Schedule 4 and 7 of the Australian Poisons Standard via a process administered by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

What this means

There are a number of specific and technical changes, but the overall impact of the proposed amendment would mean that if approved, that from February 2021 all nicotine for human use except tobacco prepared and packed for smoking (cigarettes) and traditional nicotine replacement therapies (patches, gums and sprays) will be via prescription and only available in Australia through a pharmacy.

In effect, from that date onwards it will be formalised that vaping products such as liquid nicotine and nicotine salt products used by vapers in e-cigarettes will first require the user to obtain a prescription from their GP before making a purchase exclusively from a licensed pharmacy.

Vaping is a better alternative than smoking but will be regulated the harshest

This illogical change creates a double standard under which dangerous cigarettes and marginally effective sprays, patches and gum will continue to be freely available without a prescription, whilst vaping products that have been acknowledged by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and more recently the Royal Australasian College of Physicians as providing a better alternative than smoking, will require a prescription and only be sold in pharmacies. 

Crackdown coming

Whilst the requirement for a prescription is a grey area at present, this formal clarification means vapers without a prescription and who have not purchased their goods from a pharmacy can expect an increasingly savage escalation in enforcement and serious criminal charges being laid against them, all because they want to get off cigarettes.

The Solution

As a matter of urgency the government should remove the requirement for prescriptions and properly regulate  vaping products to make sure they are available wherever cigarettes are sold to give people the option to make a better, ‘healthier’ choice at the point of sale.

We need your help

We know that people power counts. We all agree for the need to fight this.

Click here to have your voice heard on this illogical move by the TGA!