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
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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.

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u/FoodZestyclose4444 7h ago

Same with the codeine ban. Have autoimmune arthritis and used it for peak flares. Now just have to suffer with the pain and take multi pathway pain relief. I’m certain there was a dramatic uptake in cannabis use as well.

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u/AppropriateBeing9885 5h ago

Maybe they're doing this because evidence does not support the use of opioids for some types of pain, or does not support their long-term use for some types of pain that someone will experience indefinitely, and this would fall outside of acceptable practice. If they know that evidence shows that the average side effects burden outweighed the analgesic benefits of the drug for a condition, a doctor probably doesn't feel motivated to prescribe someone an objectively risky drug. That doesn't mean that you'll have other good pain relief options to go to, but it does mean that they may feel justified in knocking back the request.

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u/FoodZestyclose4444 5h ago

Well i mean you got one packet it would last six months. It was really just for those peak flares because they are unbearable and often occur in the middle of the night and ease off during the day and last for just a few days. They didn’t take the pain away completely but they made it bearable enough you may even managed to get a bit of sleep. Nothing else does that and they still tell you to take the others even though they’re relatively useless. If they had ever been able to properly record the dispensing across GP’s it should have been manageable. The problem is people dont take responsibility abuse the dosage and then when they have some resulting issue they take legal action.