Pubdate: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) Copyright: 2002 New Zealand Herald Contact: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300 Author: Bridget Carter SALE OF DRUG INGREDIENTS TO BE LIMITED Tough new rules affecting the sale of the chemicals that can make methamphetamine are about to be introduced by the drug industry and backed by police. Richard Schurr, of the police national drug intelligence bureau, said a meeting in Auckland last month with groups such as Medsafe, the Pharmacy Guild and the Non-Prescription Medicine Association was partly in response to directions by the United Nations to create international protocols and conventions over trading chemical products. While no one will reveal details of the options to be considered, the Herald has been told that methods used in Australia that restrict the sale of drugs will be considered. Across the Tasman, the popular cold drug Pseudofed cannot be sold in packets of 60 or 90 tablets. The product contains pseudoephedrine, the substance used to make methamphetamine, or speed. The smaller packets are kept out of easy reach and must be dispensed by a pharmacist. An Australian national drugs strategic unit spokesman, Steve Vaughan, said the company Pfizer had agreed nearly 18 months ago to stop selling the large Pseudofed packets in Australia. Some pharmacists asked for photo identification before they sold anything containing pseudoephedrine. For the past five years, the Australian pharmaceutical industry has had a code of conduct restricting who can buy certain substances, preventing them from being paid for in cash and requiring that courier companies deliver them to specified business addresses. Mr Vaughan said the rules were working, but a difficult area to control was the sale of substances through the internet. Australian methamphetamine manufacturers had bought the chemicals for speed on international websites, including New Zealand sites. "If you go on international sites it is quite widely advertised." Mr Schurr said methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant that works on the central nervous system, first came to notice in New Zealand during the early 1990s, and the first methamphetamine laboratory in this country was found near Timaru in 1996. Last year, police discovered 41 laboratories, compared with nine in 2000. Some were located in car boots or in bathrooms. Most were found in the area from Hamilton northwards. The drug bureau says the trade can provide manufacturers and suppliers with vast profits. Those involved can turn chemicals worth a few hundred dollars into $200,000 in just a few days. On the street, speed sells for up to $100 a gram. It is made out of ephedrine, which comes from a plant but can also be made synthetically and is mixed with other substances. Most chemicals to make the drug come from organised groups of shoppers, paid by the methamphetamine cooks to travel around pharmacies until they have bought hundreds of tablets containing pseudoephedrine. Mr Schurr said companies had to be licensed to buy the chemicals used to make speed but there were ways around it. He said New Zealand needed ways to address the problem with drugs being sold to make speed. But there needed to be room for people to still go about their business. David Jones, a spokesman for the Pharmacy Guild, said there were 42 products sold in pharmacies that contained substances used to make speed. Examples were Actifed and Telfast. Pharmacists would be suspicious of anyone who bought more than one packet of these drugs. Pharmacies had been exposed to burglaries and raids and staff had been put under a lot of pressure to sell them, he said. Auckland pharmacies the Herald spoke to were not stocking cold-tablet type products in packs of more than 30 tablets and had a policy of asking for identification and restricting sales. Products containing codeine, such as Panadol, are available in packs of up to 100 tablets but are usually held behind the pharmacy counter. The smaller cold-treatment packs are often on open shelves. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens