Pubdate: Mon, 26 Dec 2005
Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 Queensland Newspapers
Contact: http://thecouriermail.com.au/extras/forms/letter.htm
Website: http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/98
Author: Emma Chalmers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

SALES CLAMP ON FLU DRUGS

Queenslanders will not be able to buy cold and flu  drugs without
photo identification or a pharmacist's  approval under a new national
plan to crack down on  illegal drug manufacturers.

>From January 1 pharmacy assistants will be banned from  selling drugs
containing pseudoephedrine and  pharmacists themselves will have to
record the details  and sometimes drivers licence numbers of customers
 before selling such drugs.

They have also been ordered to question unfamiliar and  very frequent
buyers and suspicious purchases will be  monitored by the Pharmacy
Guild, police and Queensland  Health.

The tougher new regulations are designed to stifle the  growing number
of amphetamine labs, especially in  Queensland, which is recognised as
the nation's "speed"  capital.

Medicines containing pseudoephedrine are often used  illegally as a
precursor to manufacture methamphetamine  and it is known that some
drug makers have driven from  Cairns to Brisbane, stopping at
pharmacies to buy flu  drugs along the way.

The crackdown will only affect pharmacies because cold  and flu drugs
sold in major supermarkets do not contain  pseudoephedrine.

While the new laws mean more work for pharmacists and a  grilling for
customers, Health Minister Stephen  Robertson said they were necessary
to tackle the drug  problem in the state.

"We recognise the overwhelming majority of  Queenslanders have a
genuine therapeutic need for these  medications," he said.

"But we believe that imposing more stringent  point-of-sale controls
on these medicines is necessary  to help combat the manufacture of
illicit drugs in  Queensland."

Next year, over-the-counter cold and flu tablets  containing
pseudoephedrine will be reclassified from  schedule two to the
"pharmacist-only" schedule three  and it is believed the Federal
Government is also  investigating whether to move some to schedule
four or  prescription-only.

More than five illegal drug labs are discovered by  police in
Queensland every week representing 55 per  cent of the national total.

Newly elected Queensland Pharmacy Guild president Tim  Logan said that
while the new laws would be frustrating  for pharmacists and customers
alike, the administrative  interference was necessary to fight the
scourge of  speed.

"It's quite regrettable that we have to do that and  inconvenience the
general public ," he said.

Spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Society of  Australia, Geraldine
Moses, pleaded with the public to  be patient with pharmacists when
the laws come into  effect.

"This will create a logistical nightmare during the  cough and cold
season," she said.

"We wish there was another way to try to handle the  problem of abuse
and the illegal manufacture of  amphetamines."

She said it would have been better to test the new laws  first and
implement a monitoring system to judge the  effectiveness of the changes.
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