Pubdate: Sat, 27 Sep 2003
Source: Press, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2003 The Christchurch Press Company Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.press.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/349
Author: Dave Courtney

CHEMISTS HELP IN DRUG CLAMPDOWN

Pharmacists are strangling the trade in amphetamine precursors and forcing 
illegal drug-manufacturers to turn to cyber space for their ingredients.

For over two years pharmacists and police in Canterbury have co-operated to 
cut the sale of common cold and 'flu remedies to criminals using them as 
the base ingredient in methamphetamine.

Police said the effects of this and similar programmes around the country 
were beginning to show, with criminal manufacturers now forced to use the 
Internet to buy and bring the drugs into the country.

The Canterbury Police drug squad head, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg 
Williams, said police and pharmacists had worked together since 2001 to 
monitor sales of pseudoephedrine-based pills.

"It's starting to have an impact ... manufacturers are having to move to 
other areas to source them," Mr Williams said.

"It's an evolutionary process. They (manufacturers) adapt as one area is 
closed down."

Pharmacists are considered a key element in the fight against the 
substance's use in New Zealand, which has one the highest levels of use of 
the drug in the world.

Customs have reported meth-manufacturers ordered millions of cold and 'flu 
tablets through the Internet after pharmacies clamped down on 
over-the-counter sales.

The cold remedies are being imported in shipping containers, commercial 
cargo, courier mail, and carried in by smugglers.

Those caught buying the drugs for use as a precursor substance for 
manufacturing face prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Mr Williams said police had begun to work with businesses that stocked 
other chemicals or hardware used in the manufacturing process, to monitor 
the trade in those goods as well.

He said the most recent find of a clandestine lab in Christchurch was three 
weeks ago, when police came across a small box-kit in a person's home after 
executing a search warrant on another matter.

Christchurch pharmacist Peter Cooke said the city's pharmacists were 
acutely aware of their role in helping police hit methamphetamine 
manufacturers.

He said high-dose pseudoephedrine remedies were kept off shop floors ­ some 
shops did not stock them at all ­ and low-dose medicines were kept in 
cabinets out of immediate reach of customers.

Customers would usually be asked for identification and a home address 
before they would be sold a packet of medicine.

In Gisborne, all pharmacies had stopped stocking the remedies and as a 
result burglaries had fallen.

Mr Cooke said burglaries were a problem in Christchurch as criminals sought 
out the lucrative ingredient ­ a pack of 30 costs between $11 and $14 but 
can fetch up to $110 on the black market ­ to sell on to manufacturers.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens