POLICE CHECK SPEED DRUG SALES

Police are investigating two North Island pharmacists for selling large
quantities of over-the-counter cold and flu tablets containing pseudoephedrine.

Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine,
or speed.

Pharmaceutical Society registrar Jim Thomson would not say where the two
chemists were based.

Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, pharmacists selling the tablets in
quantities clearly intended for amphetamine manufacturing can face up to
seven years in jail.

A new monitoring regime aimed at more easily indentifying pharmacists who
break the law will be set up in December.

Mr Thomson said he knew of cases where pharmacists had been threatened and
intimidated by people wanting the pills.

Detective Sergeant Simon Perry, of Wellington's organised crime unit, said
one man had been prosecuted in Upper Hutt recently for possessing large
quantities of pseudoephedrine as a "precusor drug". He said methamphetamine
was fast becoming the biggest drug problem in the region.

This was partly because the base chemicals used to make it were easily
available from pharmacies.

Detective Sergeant Tony Quayle, of the National Drugs Intelligence Bureau,
said police were working with pharmaceutical industry groups to develop a
"memorandum of understanding" so they could indentify pharmacists who
ordered excessive quantities of the tablets.