WARNING OVER MEDICINE-VENDING MACHINES

DRUG dealers could have unfettered access to the ingredients for speed if
medicines were sold through vending machines, drug experts have
warned.Vending machines could be used to sell medications including
painkillers, antacids and decongestants, a government review suggested.

The vending machines could give consumers easier access to non-prescription
medications, Melbourne economist Rhonda Galbally has recommended in a draft
report commissioned by state and federal health ministers on the
availability of drugs.

But drug campaigners, the Salvation Army and the NSW Opposition have warned
the machines should not be used to dispense medications like cold and flu
tablets, which can be used to manufacture illegal drugs.

"This idea rings a big alarm bell. Why make access to these drugs any
easier?" NSW Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said.

Wayne Hall of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre said drugs
containing pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in cold and flu tablets
that can be used to manufacture amphetamines, should not be available.

"They'd be ones I'd imagine wouldn't be on the list of candidates,"
Professor Hall said.

NSW chief health officer Andrew Wilson said drugs containing
pseudoephedrine were unlikely to be made available in vending machines.
"Those drugs are used as a base compound for making amphetamines so we
would be pretty cautious about that," Mr Wilson said.

Pharmacists expressed concern that customers could buy large amounts of
painkillers from a vending machine, unlike in chemist shops.

But Mr Wilson said that under the proposed scheme, only small doses of each
drug, such as four tablets, would be available. "It's always possible that
somebody could continue to put money in and buy large amounts but it's a
bloody sight easier to go down to the local store and buy a packet," he said.