Novel medical vaping program by Launceston GP offers hope to smokers

Andrew Jackson, practice principal at Northern Suburbs Medical Service Mowbray, said his decades-long experience in treating patients with opiate addiction is now enabling long-term smokers to quit with medically supervised, pharmacy-dispensed nicotine vaping.

One of his patients, Graeme Blyth, said he'd smoked around 30 to 35 cigarettes a day for 48 years.

"I tried to quit a few times," Mr Blyth said.

"I was hypnotised twice and that didn't really work. I tried pills and that was no good, so I talked to Dr Jackson and he recommended nicotine vaping and I've never looked back.

"I'm waking up feeling a lot better in the morning and I don't worry about buying smokes all the time - I'm saving probably $400 a week."

He said the changes in his health had been noticeable since quitting.

"It's worth waking up now, I'm not feeling like a dirty ashtray every morning ... I recommend it to anyone," he said.

On July 1 the federal government introduced a world-first ban on vapes, with the sale of e-cigarettes restricted to pharmacies as part of a government crackdown on recreational smoking.

Under the deal, pharmacists will be able to sell vapes with limited nicotine content over the counter, while people under 18 will need a prescription to buy vapes.

Dr Jackson echoed concerns from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, who want prescriptions to remain in place, arguing pharmacists were healthcare professionals who dispensed medication that had a proven therapeutic benefit.

"On March 1, the government introduced regulations about vaping such that you had to get a prescription from a doctor, and you had to get the nicotine vape materials from a pharmacist," Dr Jackson said.

"Now there's been a recent complication and the government's decided from the first of October, people will not need to go through this process.

"I'm not in favour of that - this is too complex to be managed in retail pharmacy."

In Dr Jackon's medical vaping program, patients must undergo a thorough examination.

It involves a smoking and health review, physical examination, the ordering of tests including lung function, and a chest x-ray or CT lung scan to detect any unsuspected lung cancers earlier for treatment and a signed consent form.

"As you can see from this structured approach, people need to have their smoking history looked into in detail," Dr Jackson said.

"It's like a medical vaping service, not just going to the pharmacist and buying some nicotine."

"Ultimately, I think other doctors will involve themselves in this because I think it's going to turn out to be the preeminent way of getting people to stop smoking."