It's Legal To Sell Amyl In Pharmacies, But You Won't See Any On Shelves

It’s been three years since the advocacy of the LGBTQ and medical communities — and beyond — thwarted the Australian Government’s plan to ban amyl. 

In April, 2018, the Therapeutic Goods Administration proposed all alkyl nitrite products be reclassified from a Schedule 4 Prescription Only Medicine to a Schedule 9 Prohibited Substance. It would’ve meant the inhalant, which is commonly used as a muscle relaxant for comfortable anal sex or as a recreational substance to reach temporary euphoria and weightlessness, would be legally equivalent to meth or heroin. 

But the protest and public outcry worked, and instead of going up to Schedule 9, in February 2020 amyl nitrite went down to Schedule 3 — Pharmacist Only Medicine — which can be legally sold and purchased behind the counter at pharmacies. 

“What happened was nothing short of a miracle,” writer and activist Joshua Badge, who was instrumental in the advocacy effort in 2018 and 2019 that flipped the proposed poppers ban, told VICE.

“It would’ve been catastrophic for community [and] we avoided a really bad thing from happening.”

But three years later, while amyl is technically legal to use, there are no products on Australian pharmacy shelves, so users are still forced to seek them and purchase them illegally. 

To date, the TGA has not approved any amyl nitrite products for supply in Australia — as many advocates and health experts expected. 

For a drug to be approved for sale in Australia by the TGA, the manufacturer needs to foot a bill of tens of thousands of dollars to apply. The TGA says the application process takes no longer than 210 days, but naturally that’s not including the work required of companies before they submit their application. This can include engaging lawyers and other professionals to conduct factory inspections, lab tests and filling out a lot of paperwork.

It’s not a viable option for small manufacturers, and for larger companies, it’s hardly desirable because of Australia’s small market share.  

A TGA spokesperson told VICE it has “held several meetings and provided advice to a number of companies on the registration process and evidence requirements” for getting an amyl nitrite product approved for sale. 

But it couldn’t offer an indication that any companies had even engaged the application process, let alone when we could expect to see one approved.

“The timing of when a submission for an amyl nitrite-containing product will be made is up to companies,” the spokesperson said. 

In 2019, CEO of Thorne Harbour Health Simon Ruth told VICE he expected a recess of about two years before we saw amyl nitrites in the marketplace.

But after waiting three years already, Badge said we may never — or at least not for a very long time yet — see amyl in pharmacies.

As Badge wrote in their submission to the TGA, because of the culture of when and where the product is used, and discrimination LGBTQ people often face in healthcare settings, it made more sense to downgrade amyl to a Schedule 2 Pharmacy Medicine that can be sold in a variety of retail settings, including where it’s currently sold — in sex shops. 

“I wouldn’t be against putting poppers in pharmacies but the reality is the way they’ve been manufactured and distributed has worked for decades so the pharmacy solution is where the TGA landed, but that’s not particularly relevant to the users.”

A Schedule 2 would also mean retailers and producers could proactively offer users through and accurate information about the product and how to safely use it. 

But Badge said that, even though users still had to buy the products illegally, the reclassification was still a “huge win”.

“There was no telling whether police would start enforcing the scheduling and whether or not customs would start seizing imports, or if people were gonna start cooking it in their bathtubs and luckily none of that has happened,” they said.

“I think this is more of a story about the normative force of regulation. 

“The TGA recognising there was a therapeutic use had quite a lot of impact in it just being an acceptable thing. Much in the same way the postal survey was really never just about gay marriage, it was about so much more.

“We don’t have amyl in pharmacies and I think it’s likely we never will, but the pro is that we won the argument.”