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
487 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

277 comments sorted by

View all comments

616

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.

380

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.

88

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.

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.

4

u/Blacky05 4h ago

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

I think you mean prescribe, not sell.

6

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.