Why can’t we mention prescription medications by name?
In accordance with guidelines and regulations set out by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), we are unable to disclose the names of our treatments until you have completed a consultation with a Polln doctor and have been deemed eligible for treatment.
Here at Polln, we prioritise your safety and well-being. These measures have been put in place to ensure that you are able to discuss all treatment options with a qualified medical professional who specialises in the prescription of natural medicines and can help tailor your treatment plan to suit your individual needs.
All medications prescribed by our Polln doctors have been approved for use in Australia.
Vaping is the process of heating dried herb at a high temperature without burning it, allowing for the active ingredients to be released in the form of a vapour, which is then inhaled.
Vaping is one of two inhalation methods for consuming dried herb, alongside smoking. In medicinal contexts, vaping is preferable to smoking because it reduces the amount of undesired hydrocarbons being absorbed into the body while also alleviating the need for tobacco, which can lead to addiction and other serious health issues. Vaping also allows for a more precise dose to meet the therapeutic needs of a patient, given that less of the active ingredients are lost in side stream/combustion.
As of 2022, dried herb has become the second most approved form of consuming prescription natural medicine in Australia.1 This implies that a large number of patients are using an inhalation method to consume their dried herb medication.
Inhalation delivery methods, like vaping, allow for active ingredients to be absorbed directly into the bloodstream through the lungs, making this the preferred method for patients who require rapid relief of symptoms.
How Do You Vaporise Medical Dried Herb?
To vaporise dried herb, you’ll need a device known as a vaporiser (or vape). While a vaporiser can include any device that releases a particular substance in the form of vapour, doctors will generally recommend a medical-grade dry herb vaporiser for use with prescription natural medicines.
Dry herb vapes allow you to vape your natural medicine without burning it so that the active ingredients can be released as a vapour. With a dry herb vape, the patient receives only the active ingredients needed to experience the medicinal benefits of the dry herb – and none of the chemicals or additives that might be found in some other types of commercially available vapes, such as vape pens and cartridges.
When using a dry herb vaporiser, you can also vaporise your prescription natural medicine at the optimal temperatures by using the vaporiser’s temperature setting. This makes it easy to control your experience by adjusting the temperature of your vaporiser to the boiling points of the active ingredients within your dried herb to achieve desired benefits.
As always, you should follow the specific instructions for your vaporiser as well as your doctor’s advice for using your vaporiser and treatment and only use your medication as prescribed.
Is It Legal to Vape Prescription Natural Medicines in Public?
It is legal to vape prescription natural medicine in public smoking areas. There are no laws that prohibit the use of medical-grade vaporisers for consuming legally prescribed natural medicine treatments as long as you are in a public smoking area and are not causing a disturbance to others in your proximity.
This means that because your prescription natural medicine is a highly regulated substance prescribed to you only, you will need to ensure you are at a safe distance from others, especially children, who may inhale your medication passively.
You should always carry your medication in its original packaging with the pharmacy label attached as well as any documentation (such as your script and/or approval letter) and identification that can verify your legal patient status if you are stopped or questioned by law enforcement.
The patient guidance section of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) website states that dry herb should be ‘vaporised but not smoked’ for medicinal purposes. Therefore Polln does not recommend smoking your prescription natural medicine treatments anywhere, including in public smoking areas, as it is not supported by the TGA.
What Are the Benefits of Vaping vs. Smoking?
Vaping
Some of the benefits of vaping dry herb, as opposed to smoking it, include:
- Rapid onset and fast relief – first effects occur within 90 seconds and reach a maximum after 15 to 30 minutes before wearing off after 2–4 hours. Useful for symptoms and conditions where immediate relief is required
- Higher concentrations of active ingredients – vaporising heats the dry herb without burning it,2 which maintains the concentrations and quality of the active ingredients3
- Temperature control – patients can control the temperature of their vaporiser to achieve desired benefits based on the boiling points of their medicine’s active ingredients
- Potential reduction in overall consumption – because of the enhanced uptake of active ingredients , reduced cravings due to no tobacco, and the ability to easily pick up and put down the vaporiser as needed, patients are more likely to stay within their therapeutic window and achieve maximum therapeutic benefits with less product than they would need to use when smoking. This reduces the amount of medication needed and saves the patient money over time
- Less carcinogens and safer than smoking
- Legal in public smoking areas with a prescription
- More discreet than smoking
Vaping comes with its own risks and side effects. It's important to discuss your suitability for vaping with your prescribing doctor and only use your prescription natural medicine and vaporiser as advised.
Smoking
Although smoking is the most common route of administration for non-medical dry herb use, it is not recommended for patients due to the health risks,variability, and unpredictability of each individual’s response. Here are some things to consider when it comes to smoking dry herb treatments:
- At least 40% of the active ingredient dosage in dry herb is lost in side stream/combustion when smoked,2 making it difficult to estimate how much of the active ingredients the patient is consuming
- Dry herb smoking, like smoking cigarettes, is associated with increased risk of cancer, lung damage, and poor pregnancy outcomes.4 It can also inflame and irritate your lungs
- If you are combining dry herb and tobacco for smoking, you are increasing your risk of many health conditions and diseases including cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory conditions5
- Not supported by the TGA
- Less discreet than vaping, and is not supported as a delivery method in public smoking areas – even with a valid prescription
- Smoking dry herb with tobacco is more likely to lead to addiction and dependence, which can cause patients to use more product than required. This is primarily due to nicotine – the addictive substance found in tobacco – and not the dry herb itself
- You may need to use more of your prescription natural medicine treatment to achieve the same results as you would with vaporising, due to the active ingredients being lost in combustion. This increases the costs of your medication over time
Overall, vaporising dry herb results in similar rapid absorption and high blood concentrations as smoking it, but produces fewer toxins, poses fewer health risks (when a high-quality dry herb vaporiser is used), is more cost-effective over time, and leads to greater therapeutic outcomes.
Always follow the advice of your doctor when it comes to how you administer your prescription natural medicine and only use your treatments and devices as advised.
Is Vaping Safe?
Although vaping dried herb – particularly with a TGA-approved vaporiser – is known to be safer than smoking, it can still come with health risks. In comparison with smoking, vaporisation has been shown to produce the purest stream of active ingredients while containing less than 1/1000th of the hazardous substances associated with combustion.6 But not all vaping devices are created equal.
The negative health risks associated with vaping, which include lung injuries, headaches, heart issues, and more, are often related to the use of illegally manufactured vape products7 and vape products with chemical profiles that are closer to that of e-liquids. Illegally manufactured or modified vape products and vape products containing harmful chemicals such as vitamin E acetate significantly increase your risk of damaging your lungs.
Harmful by-products, including microbial contaminants, harmful chemicals, carcinogens, and addictive substances like dextromethorphan, are often found in black-market natural medicine oils, unapproved vape pens, cartridges, and e-liquids. Vaporiser injuries from unapproved vapes can also range from burns to accidental liquid ingestion and a lung disease known as 'popcorn lung.'
To be safe and effective, prescribed dried herb should be vaporised using a TGA-approved dry-herb vaporiser within the correct temperature range as advised by your prescribing doctor.
What is the ideal vape temperature for dried herb? Knowing the different boiling points of the various active ingredients and other properties within your dried herb will help you adjust your vape temperature for the safest and most beneficial experience. Set your vape temperature too low, and you run the risk of missing out on the potency and unique flavours of your dried herb, as certain compounds will not have reached the minimum temperature required for them to activate.
Similarly, if you set your vape temperature too high – especially at temperatures higher than 230°C – you run the risk of inhaling more toxic compounds and degrading the active ingredients in your dried herb so that they are no longer beneficial to your health.
The optimal temperature range of vaping dried herb is between 180–210°C – but there is room for experimentation within this temperature range to find what works best for you and the ingredients in your medicine. While some active ingredients will ‘activate’ or ‘evaporate’ at lower temperatures within this range, other active ingredients such as terpenes like linalool or limonene have a higher boiling point, meaning they activate at higher temperatures within that optimal range.
So if you’re looking to reap the benefits of specific compounds within your dried herb, you might like to investigate the boiling points for each active ingredient within your medication and play around with your vape temperature, with the support of your prescribing doctor.
Storz & Bickel
Storz & Bickel, owned by Canopy Growth Corporation, are currently the first and only TGA-approved medical vaporisers available in Australia to be used with prescription natural medicine. These devices are in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) (ARTG Identifier 319028) and are available for purchase at Shop Polln.
The MIGHTY MEDIC, MIGHTY+ MEDIC, and Volcano Medic 2 are intended to be used with dried herb. Both iterations of the Mighty Medic are battery-operated and portable, allowing for dose administration at home and on the go, whilst the Volcano Medic 2 is a desktop vaporising device designed to be used at home, in hospital settings, and in medical practices – if permitted.
Always use your prescription natural medicine and devices as advised by your prescribing doctor.
The Bottom Line
Vaping is just one of a number of delivery methods used to administer prescription natural medicine. It is known to be safer than smoking while providing greater control over therapeutic benefits and being more discreet and more cost-effective over time. Vaping may be beneficial for patients who require rapid relief from their symptoms, as effects can be felt within minutes.
Although vaping with a TGA-approved vaporiser is legal in public smoking areas, you should always keep your medication in its original packaging with the pharmacy label attached and carry your script and identification so you can verify your patient status. Always be mindful of people around you who should not be able to inhale your medication passively.
If you are interested in talking to a doctor about dried herb, we recommend speaking to a professional who specialises in prescribing natural medicines so they can help determine which, if any, prescription natural medicines may be right for you while guiding you in the use of any required devices, such as a medical vaporiser.
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) 2021, https://www.tga.gov.au/medicinal-cannabis-special-access-scheme-category-b-data
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) 2017, https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/publications/guidance-use-medicinal-cannabis-australia-overview
- Lanz C, Mattsson J, Soydaner U, Brenneisen R. Medicinal Cannabis: In Vitro Validation of Vaporizers for the Smoke-Free Inhalation of Cannabis. PLoS One. 2016 Jan 19;11(1):e0147286. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147286. PMID: 26784441; PMCID: PMC4718604.
- Mack A, Joy J. Marijuana as Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2000. 3, HOW HARMFUL IS MARIJUANA? Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK224396/
- Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care 2020, What are the effects of smoking and tobacco? Available from: https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/smoking-and-tobacco/about-smoking-and-tobacco/what-are-the-effects-of-smoking-and-tobacco
- Meehan-Atrash J, Luo W, McWhirter KJ, Strongin RM. Aerosol Gas-Phase Components from Cannabis E-Cigarettes and Dabbing: Mechanistic Insight and Quantitative Risk Analysis. ACS Omega. 2019 Sep 16;4(14):16111-16120. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b02301. PMID: 31592479; PMCID: PMC6777088.
- Chadi N, Minato C, Stanwick R. Cannabis vaping: Understanding the health risks of a rapidly emerging trend. Paediatr Child Health. 2020 Jun;25(Suppl 1):S16-S20. doi: 10.1093/pch/pxaa016. Epub 2020 Jun 15. PMID: 33390752; PMCID: PMC7757764.
- Lanz C, Mattsson J, Soydaner U, Brenneisen R. Medicinal Cannabis: In Vitro Validation of Vaporizers for the Smoke-Free Inhalation of Cannabis. PLoS One. 2016 Jan 19;11(1):e0147286. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147286. PMID: 26784441; PMCID: PMC4718604.
The information on this website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and not intended for use as medical advice. Polln is not promoting the use of medicinal cannabis. Medicinal cannabis in Australia is scheduled medication and regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Details about medicinal cannabis as a scheduled drug can be found on their website. If you would like to explore medicinal cannabis for your chronic condition, please consult with a doctor.
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