Summary:
Needing a prescription to obtain a nicotine vape is driving people, especially youths, to purchase them illegally in unregulated tobacco stores and/or go back to smoking cigarettes.

Let's reduce the illicit market, control access to adults only, and have quality tested vaping products available only through the pharmacy and behind the counter, controlled by a pharmacist!


As of October 1st 2021, nicotine vaping products or better known to the TGA as NVP’s have been recognised as a second-line therapy for smoking cessation to reduce harms from the use of combustible cigarettes for nicotine addiction. In an attempt to enforce its strict use under the care of healthcare providers, nicotine vaping products now require a doctor's prescription to obtain.

Australia's shift to having nicotine vaping products (NVP's) requiring prescription has shown progress towards the illicit market similar to other countries who have either done the same or implemented a complete ban.

A study by Wong, et al., (2017) of Malaysian consumers of NVP's provides further insight into this area. The study was a cross-sectional survey of over 850 users that inquired about their use of e-liquids after the enactment of a national ban on sales of nicotine-containing e-liquid. Over 87.9% of survey respondents reported continuing to purchase nicotine-containing e-liquid from illegal retailers and 63.1% reported having done so through an online retailer. Importantly, almost one-third (30.8%) of respondents reported fabricating their own homemade e-liquids on a DIY basis.

In Australia, illicit vapes are being abundantly sold over the counter at tobacco and liquor stores around Australia with no adherence to quality or safety standards. These operators take no responsibility in harm reduction or user care, and are further endangering the youth of Australia. Products such as iGet, have unverified manufacturing safety practices and ingredients, with levels of nicotine available beyond the recommended dose for any level of user.

Furthermore,  it appears the ability to police these illegal sales will be virtually impossible, including the sales to minors.
Our petition is to make it much easier and safer for ex-smokers using nicotine replacement therapies to access nicotine vapes by having its classification downgraded to S3, a pharmacy only, over the counter medication. And for smokers to have this opportunity offered to them by their highly educated local pharmacist. This will remove the issues around convenience such as prescription requirement and availability. This will also raise the safety of access to quality products as part of your local pharmacy’s responsible sourcing and selling of products. In addition, the healthcare resource of a pharmacist being able to assist in the patient care journey towards smoking cessation removes the load on general practitioners.

Fundamentally, we believe making nicotine vaping products available as a pharmacy only, over the counter medication (S3 classification) will remove almost all these issues and support from the TGA to achieve this goal will be needed.