'BAN ONLY WAY' TO HALT METH MAKERS

AN electronic sales monitoring system for pharmacies to stop cold and
flu medications being used to manufacture methamphetamine is not the
answer . . . banning the drug is, says one Gisborne pharmacist.

Police have announced a plan to investigate the use of an electronic
sales monitoring system, based on an Australian model, that allows
pharmacies to share information about pseudoephedrine sales.

While Gisborne pharmacist David Moore agrees it is a good idea, he
said a simpler answer was for the Government to deregister the drug .
. . something he believes should have been done at least five years ago.

Mr Moore said while it was obviously not going to stop the whole
problem of people using the drug to manufacture methamphetamine or
"P", it should be part of a bigger solution.

The value of P in the New Zealand market is thought to be more than
$160 million a year.

Mr Moore was one of a group of Gisborne pharmacists who made the
decision not to stock products containing pseudoephedrine in August 2006.

There is now only one pharmacy in Gisborne which stocks such products.

They also have a fax alert system, which they put into place to alert
other pharmacies if they suspect a customer is misusing
pseudoephedrine or other drugs.

This system is similar to the one police are looking to introduce nationwide.

Although the fax system worked to some extent, Mr Moore said it was
very hard to tell the genuine customers apart from the non-genuine ones.

Therefore, it was easier to not stock the product in the first place.

There were now a variety of other drugs on the market which had
similar effects, but did not contain pseudoephedrine.

Mr Moore said many pharmacies across the North Island had taken
similar steps, including those in Rotorua. However, South Island
pharmacies had been slower off the mark.

"I think as more and more alternatives come on the market to sell, it
will be easier for pharmacies to make that decision."

Police National Drugs Intelligence Bureau spokesman Alun Newton told
The Press that an electronic system was probably 18 months away, as
issues such as privacy, funding and pharmacy involvement still needed
to be dealt with.

The technology already existed and it was probably just a matter of
pharmacies having broadband links.

"What we have a problem with is the person who goes from pharmacy A
to pharmacy B and C buying the drugs," he said.

"The system would allow pharmacy A to look at sales and see something
might not be right and question the person.

"By the time of the third or fourth sale, the decision will be able
to be made about handing out the drugs."

Gisborne police's Operation Pod in 2003-2004 resulted in the arrest
of 13 P dealers, while another P lab was closed down at Muriwai last June.