Western Australia to bypass Commonwealth to ban vapes without a prescription

One Australian state is taking action to stamp out the sale of vapes without a prescription, going against new laws to be introduced by the Commonwealth next month.

The Albanese government has set several new regulations to restrict the sale and importation of vapes making it illegal for retailers, such as tobacconists and vape shops, to sell the products.

Since July, the product has been available through pharmacies for people with a prescription.

Those laws will be loosened next month to allow the sale of vapes at pharmacies to people aged over 18 years without a prescription.

A Pharmacy 777 spokesman said in a statement selling vapes undermined the professional role of pharmacists.

“Going from a retail sale to a health outcome focus is placing undue pressure on the community pharmacy that has no protocols or guidelines to be able to counsel and seek better alternatives without push back to the expectation of just being a retail sale of a vaping unit,” the spokesman said.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s NSW branch vice president Catherine Bronger said there were many pharmacists who really did not want to be in the supply of vapes.

“We’re not policemen – we’re pharmacists and we shouldn’t have to police these items within community pharmacies, especially because we know they’re often used by underage people,“ she said.

WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told reporters on Wednesday the state would introduce tougher regulations to ban the sale of vapes without a prescription, bypassing the Commonwealth laws.

The health minister said the Commonwealth had passed world leading legislation and introduced tough new penalties, but unfortunately the regulations were watered down by the Greens.

She said states were scrambling to manage this issue because a generation of children were now addicted to vapes.

“This will make it illegal to import or manufacture or even hold vapes for commercial purposes,” she said.

“There will be no targeting children with unicorn, fruity, mint flavour or menthol, and there will be significant support to help people off vapes.

“All we want to do is limit any opportunity, particularly for children, to access vapes, but we don’t want people to be able to walk into a pharmacist to be able to buy a vape.

“That’s what our regulations will do, we will maintain the ban on vaping for anyone without prescriptions.”

Minister Sanderson said they would continue to crackdown on organisations which continued to flout the law.

“At the moment it’s been far too easy, and they have been aggressively targeting children, but the Commonwealth laws will make it harder,” she said.

“Every state and territory is looking at their own regulations and how they can close this loophole, so I know other states are working towards closing this situation.”