Australia tightens its prescription-only regulation of e-cigarettes

Australia recently announced further tightening of e-cigarette regulations introduced in 2021 that designated all e-cigarettes containing nicotine as prescription-only medicines.1 Since 2021, only authorised practitioners can prescribe e-cigarettes dispensed by pharmacists, although any doctor can prescribe e-cigarettes for patients to import themselves for personal use (that is, “to be sent to them from an overseas supplier or family/friend”2). Nicotine-free e-cigarettes continued to be sold as consumer products similar to tobacco.

However, many retailers have continued selling nicotine containing e-cigarettes “under the counter,” few adults use the prescription pathway, and use of e-cigarettes by young people seems to have increased.345

The proposed measures aim to close loopholes that facilitated illicit sales and include only allowing pharmacies to import e-cigarettes, regardless of nicotine content, and banning single use disposable and flavoured e-cigarettes, which are popular among young people. These measures will end the sale of nicotine-free e-cigarettes as consumer products and stop all personal importation of e-cigarettes for either recreational or therapeutic purposes such as by purchasing from international online stores. …