Safety & Regulations, About Vaping
Can You Get Vapes On Prescription In The UK?
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The simple and straight forward answer to this question is no, vapes are not available on prescription in the UK, despite the fact that the use of them to quit smoking is becoming highly advocated by GPs and Stop Smoking services alike.
In this blog, I’m going to look at this in more depth as to why they are not available on prescription, as well as taking a look at whether or not the idea of making them strictly prescription only would pan out should it happen, and also what we can offer you here at Vape69 for less than the cost of a Prescription here in the UK!
GPs & Quitting Smoking
People have been going to their GP’s for the longest time to reach out and get help to quit smoking, and in recent times, we’ve seen the creation of specialised Stop Smoking services being launched all around the UK which is helping alleviate the demand for appointments at GP surgeries and instead people can visit these Stop Smoking clinics/centres to get help and advice on quitting smoking from an expert within that sector.
When somebody who wants to quit smoking visits their GP, they’ll normally go through a series of questions relating to their smoking habits, and at the end of it, the GP would then prescribe them some form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy which would be best suited for them to use, depending on their circumstances.
Nicotine Replacement Therapy is the name for the different options available that a person can utilise during the process of quitting smoking as it will still provide them with Nicotine which they have been getting from smoking cigarettes, just in a much safer and healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. It’s considered essential to utilise something like this in the process of quitting smoking as you can’t just go the “cold turkey” route when it comes down to it as this will do more bad than good.
Traditional methods of Nicotine Replacement Therapy are Nicotine Patches, which are applied to an area of skin, normally on the arms, and this then gives a slow release of nicotine absorbing into the skin to help reduce cravings. Other methods include Nicotine gum, Nicotine Sprays and Nicotine Lozenges as well, all of which have small mg of Nicotine in to help curb cravings and stop withdrawals from Nicotine setting in.
However, there’s been something new enter the fray, to which GPs and Stop Smoking services have been advocating the use of, and that is of course E-Cigarettes. Studies and facts have shown that the use of E-Cigarettes is becoming the most effective tool to quit smoking, and they are being recommended to people to try out to help them quit, with some stop smoking services even offering vouchers out to people to exchange at their local vape shop for a starter kit to get them set on the right path which is just amazing to see!
So you may ask yourself why are E-Cigarettes not available on prescription if they are proving to be successful and also the fact that they are being advocated by the healthcare professionals? Let me explain!
Why Vapes Aren’t Available On Prescription
So we’ve established the fact that the use of E-Cigarettes to quit smoking is very effective, and also that GPs and Stop Smoking services are promoting the use of these to patients who walk through their doors, but why are they not offered on prescription you may ask yourself?
I believe it largely comes down to the fact that there has not been enough long term research done on E-Cigarettes to guarantee that they are fully safe to use. Public Health England did declare back in 2016 that they are 95% safer than smoking cigarettes, they couldn’t deem it 100% safer because of the lack of long term research done.
There’s also I would expect a considerable amount of hoops to jump through and red tape as well to get this over the line for an E-Cigarette to be cleared for medicinal use, and chances are it wouldn’t be of the quality which we see being sold at retail. There actually was a device made by one of the Big Tobacco companies which got through the process but it was absolutely abysmal in quality and didn’t really get off the ground and was canned before it got going, which is probably for the best!
Will E-Cigarettes Become Available or on Prescription Only?
This is another commonly asked question, and it’s understandable that people are asking this as it’s been a hot topic of discussion, and also something that’s been implemented in Australia, which really has not worked out well for them, I’ll discuss this in more detail further on.
It was announced last week by Neil O’Brien, who is Parliamentary Under Secretary – Department of Health and Social Care that there are currently no plans from the UK Government to make E-Cigarettes obtainable by prescription only, which is absolutely terrific news as this was something being banded about in a bid to try and combat the youth vaping numbers from creeping up further. This is really good because if it did go down the prescription only route, then chances are we would be suffering the same fate as what’s happening the other side of the world in Australia.
Australia’s Prescription For Failure
In 2021, Australia introduced new laws and legislations that meant that Nicotine containing vape juice would only be obtainable from Pharmacies after getting a valid prescription from a GP and this just caused all hell to break loose in the country.
It feels like they have some vendetta against Vaping and this was introduced to try and lower down the amount of youths that were vaping by restricting the access to nicotine products, but this in turn only caused more issues to adults who were of legal age to be buying nicotine products as it wasn’t as simple and straight forward as I’ve now explained there.
A year after this, an independent review was done which showed a mere 1% of GPs in the WHOLE of Australia actually had the ability to write these prescriptions, which is absolutely pitiful when you look at the size of the country and the total amount of GPs that could actually write these prescriptions. And in turn, this made the black market sales of Disposable Vapes and Nicotine vape juice sky rocket as people had no other alternative to get what they had relied on so heavily before this ban was implemented.
And despite all of this, Australia then announced the plans for further restrictions to be implemented which basically would spell the end for recreational vaping in the country which is just so sad to see as it’ll only be counter productive and likely force people back to smoking if they can’t access what is needed for continuing to vape.
How Vape69 Can Make Vaping Cheaper Than A Prescription!
We’re big believers in making vaping as affordable and accessible to everyone as much as we possibly can, which is one of the reasons our prices are so cheap! We make everything here in house at our state of the art facility, and don’t import any of raw materials we use which keeps our costs down meaning we can reflect this onto the costs to you, our valued customers!
The price of a prescription here in the UK (if you are eligible to pay the charges) is £9.65 per item! And sadly this is a cost that has slowly been creeping up more and more over the last few years. So if you were to get a vape on prescription, you’d have to pay for the prescription for the device, and then likely a separate prescription would be issued for your vape juice required, and then this would be a repeat cost as well to ensure you’re topped up for X amount of weeks.
Looking at the £9.35 cost, chances are you’ll likely only be getting enough for a month perhaps, and this is all done in hindsight and theory so £9.35 for a month’s worth on prescription. If you bought a month’s worth of vape juice from us here, you’ll need 10 bottles going on our estimate of one 10ml bottle lasting you for 3 days, so that’s £6.90 total per month, 33% cheaper than a prescription!
And also, you can pick up one of the brilliant Aspire R1 Devices from us as well which should last you at least a week and these are only £6.99, again, cheaper than a prescription cost!
So if you’re hesitant on how much vaping would cost you, know that you’re in good hands with us here at Vape69, and we continue to make vaping as affordable as possible to everyone!
