DRUG INFORMATION RESOURCES - INTERNATIONAL
Methamphetamine – the Respiratory System & Covid-19: Bad Combination
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.
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The Australian Government wants to protect young people from the harms of vaping and nicotine dependence. From 1 July 2024, nicotine vapes in Australia are regulated as therapeutic goods. This means they are only available at pharmacies to help people quit smoking or manage nicotine dependence. It is illegal for any other business, such as tobacconists, vape shops and convenience stores, to sell any type of vape or vape product.
Until 30 September 2024, everyone needs a prescription from a doctor or nurse practitioner to purchase therapeutic vapes from a pharmacy.
From 1 October 2024, people 18 years or over will be able to purchase nicotine vapes directly from a pharmacy without a prescription.
People under 18 will still need a prescription to access vapes, where state and territory laws allow it, to ensure they get appropriate medical advice and supervision.
The concentration of nicotine in vapes sold in pharmacies without a prescription will be limited to 20mg/ml; people who need vapes with a higher concentration of nicotine will still require a prescription.
Additional changes will limit the flavours available to mint, menthol and tobacco, and require plain pharmaceutical packaging for all vape products.
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Pill Testing: A comprehensive series on Pill Checking/Testing – Get the facts, not the spin. A must read for all Australians, from Politician to Parent to Punter.
- Pill Testing Series Episode One - It's the Ecstasy Stupid
- Pill Testing Series Episode Two - How Ecstasy causes death
- Pill Testing Series Episode Three - More deaths the result
- Pill Testing Series Episode Four - The UK's bad experience
- Pill Testing Series Episode Five - Better equipment useless
- Pill Testing Series Episode Six - Call out your politicians
- What Everyone Needs to Know About Ecstasy Deaths
- The Pill Testing Goes Against National Drug Strategy
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- Drug use has been increasing over the past decade. New and more accurate data put the global estimate of people who used a drug in the past year at 292 million (or 5.6 per cent of the population aged 15 to 64) in 2022. This is 20 % more than a decade earlier, partly due to population growth.
- In 2022, cannabis remained the most used drug worldwide, with an estimated 228 million users in the past year, followed by opioids, with 60 million, amphetamine-type stimulants, with 30 million, and cocaine and “ecstasy”, with 23 million and 20 million, respectively.
- There has been a marked increase in the use of stimulant drugs such as cocaine and “ecstasy” after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Men make up the large majority of people who use drugs, but women who use drugs face greater harms and more barriers to entering treatment. Although men account for a far larger share of offences related to drug trafficking and use, women tend to have greater involvement with synthetic drugs than with plant-based drugs and once involved they suffer from higher levels of harm than men.
- Use of cannabis among adolescents remains a concern in many regions, with the additional challenge of the practice of vaping that is spreading in North America, at an age when drug use can cause lasting damage to brain development.
- Opioids continue to be the most harmful drug class in terms of drug-related deaths, but in half of the reporting countries, cannabis is the drug that most often leads to drug use disorders.
(For all four Reports – Source: UNODC – World Drug Report 2024)
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Every 'permission model' harnessed by pro-drug actors to further entrench the normalisation of drug use is only ADDING to potential harms.
The continuing misuse of important #harmreduction strategies that tacitly endorse and enable #drug use is an active undermining of the first and highest priority pillars of the National Drug Strategy – Demand and Supply Reduction.
It is staggeringly hypocritical to state that we must prioritise the reduction of both demand and supply of drug use, then release yet another publicly endorsed vehicle to spit in the face of both these vital prevention vehicles. #DemandReduction #preventdontnpromote drug use.
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A Prescription Model for Vapes: The way we ‘do’ medicines policy in Australia
Abstract: On 2 May 2023, the Australian Federal Government announced a suite of reforms aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of the prescription model of regulation of vaping (or e-cigarette) products in Australia. These reforms are intended to protect Australians, particularly young people, from the harms of vaping and nicotine dependence. The ensuing public debate on the issue has often created the impression that the options under consideration are to either retain ‘recently introduced’ prescription regulation or to ‘revert to’ a retail supply approach. However, the sale of nicotine vapes by retailers such as tobacconists and convenience stores has never been lawful in Australia. The reforms do not seek to change the way nicotine vaping products are regulated, but rather to ensure that the existing prescription model can be effectively enforced and can function as originally intended. This paper describes the historical context and rationale for strengthening prescription regulation of vapes in this country.
Key points:
- Reforms before the Australian Parliament aim to strengthen the prescription model for the regulation of vaping (e-cigarette) products
- The prescription model has been in place for some years but has not operated effectively because of an anomalous regulatory distinction between nicotine and non-nicotine vaping products, which has hindered its enforcement
- A failure to enact these reforms would not legalise the retail supply of vapes in Australia but would delay measures to improve enforcement efforts
- Successful implementation of the prescription model for nicotine vapes could help to prevent future nicotine addiction, facilitate the effective use of vaping products and prevent illegal sales, setting a global benchmark for regulating vaping products to protect public health
Conclusion: Vaping products in Australia have not been singled out for particularly harsh regulatory treatment. Rather they have been regulated in the same way as every other therapeutic good in Australia. Australia’s prescription model has not failed because ‘prohibition doesn’t work’; rather the prescription model has not had the opportunity to operate effectively because the anomalous regulatory distinction between nicotine and non-nicotine vaping products has prevented it from being properly enforced. The current reforms are about ensuring the prescription model works as intended. Failure to support the current Bill would not legalise the retail supply of vapes in Australia. However, failing to pass the Bill would delay the introduction of measures that could otherwise start within a matter of weeks to improve enforcement efforts across all levels of government.
(Source: Public Health Research & Practice (A Journal of Sax Institute)
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- Vaping and Pregnancy – Bad Combination? Science is catching up with Harm Reduction Hype!
- Legislation is Rushing Ahead of Science, and the Alarm Bells are Ringing.
- HPPD, the drug-induced disorder which can be brought on by psychedelic substances