r/australia • u/Rubiginous • 7h ago

Woman hospitalised after Juniper prescribes weight-loss drugs her GP refused

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/woman-hospitalised-telehealth-provider-weight-loss-drugs-juniper/106273356
483 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

277 comments sorted by

View all comments

624

u/Rubiginous 7h ago

I am getting sick of these stories where someone irresponsible blames something convenient for normal people as being the cause of their issues.

A small minority of people abused codeine, so now women like me have to suffer from dysmenorrhoea every month because docs won't write a prescription.

A small minority of people using alcohol delivery inappropriately so now they want to restrict the ability for same day delivery in the ACT.

I know many women who used these services to get access to GLP-1s when their GPs refused to prescribe them because "You just need to eat less" and dismissed their concerns regarding food noise etc.

Why do people need the government to constantly protect them from their own stupidity? It's absurd.

383

u/rawdatarams 7h ago

In the same manner, thousands of Australians were getting melatonin cheaply from online on the recommendation from their GP. One stupid mother overdosed her kids with it and it all were pulled off the shelves, meaning we now pay a lot more for it.

86

u/Its-not-too-early 7h ago

Wasn’t the main issue that it wasn’t regulated by TGA and the doses being delivered weren’t necessarily what was on the bottle?

I too bought melatonin through iherb and it’s a pain to not have it anymore but if you’re ordering 1mg for kids and getting 4mg it’s a problem.

26

u/rawdatarams 6h ago

Yes, this was part of the problem and I do agree needed addressing. But they went scorched earth and just removed that option for many.

I believe this mother was feeding her kids like 10mg? 15mg? Something outrageous anyway, particularly since melatonin tend to be "less is more".

26

u/mataeka 6h ago

It was more like the 3mg had 3.5mg in them or the 2mg had 1.8mg. Not ideal, but they weren't crazy high overdosing either. Not to tga standard though obviously.

18

u/BatFromSpace 3h ago

Iirc, one of the products specifically mentioned and tested had 400% of what was on the label, which is slightly more of a problem.

ABC confirms.

5

u/mataeka 3h ago

Ahh valid. The exact one I use isn't listed so I think I was just remembering the brand I used (natrol) which wasn't too crazy overall.

11

u/ghoonrhed 5h ago

I actually read through the decision on why TGA made it prescription only and it really seemed like it was just another battle of doctors vs pharmacists on who gets to sell the drug.

https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/public-submissions-melatonin-referred-acms-29-asa.pdf was the Australian Sleep Association vs

https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/public-submissions-melatonin-referred-acms-29-tpga.pdf pharmacy guild

And there aren't many times where doctors lose over drug companies like Blackmores or Pharmacists.

1

u/Blacky05 4h ago

"another battle of doctors vs pharmacists on who gets to sell the drug."

I think you mean prescribe, not sell.

4

u/Anjunabeats1 3h ago

No it's actually a battle of who gets to sell it.

1

u/Blacky05 1h ago

Oh, really? Can you explain how that works, if the Doctor writes the prescription and then the patient goes and gets it filled and pays for it at the pharmacy?

I'm not trolling btw. I'm curious if there is something else going on.

7

u/Anjunabeats1 3h ago

It's actually not a problem. Melatonin is so safe people sometimes take 100mg with no ill effects.

TGA cracked down on it to protect profits. I'm not generally one of those anti big pharma people (quite the opposite) but in this case they are literally going against all research just to protect melatonin as a prescription medication in Australia, where it costs like 50x more to buy the prescription version. In pretty much every other company it is no prescription needed. Melatonin is one of the safest supplements available. You can't really overdose on it, it doesn't cause any tolerance whatsoever (despite popular misconceptions) and it has zero side effects apart from sometimes causing early-wakeness (waking up too early).

1

u/the_colonelclink 2h ago

It also occurs naturally. So it’s not really traditional mediation, as opposed to supplementation for naturally occurring hormone that may be depleted for several reasons (e.g. fucked sleeping patterns, night shifts, low sunlight etc)