The Federal Government’s snap decision to make vapes an OTC medicine from October has outraged the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which says treating pharmacists as tobacconists is “insulting”.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler had originally planned to make e-cigarettes S4 medicines from 1 July following an initial raft of changes that came into effect at the start of the year.

But given the need for cross-party support in the Senate to pass the legislation before the end of the week, Mr Butler was forced to negotiate with the Greens.

As a result, the government has given in to the Greens’ demands to let pharmacists sell nicotine vaping products without a prescription.