VIOLENCE RISES DUE TO DRUG CONTROLS

UNTIL restrictions on the sale of pseudoephedrine took effect in
January, up to 50 per cent of the drug sold or stolen from pharmacies
went into the illicit manufacture of methamphetamines, a
parliamentary inquiry has heard.

However, while the controls have reduced the number of "pseudo
runners" going from pharmacy to pharmacy to obtain drugs containing
pseudoephedrine, they had also led to an increase in the use of
violence to obtain the drug, senior NSW police told the inquiry.

Continuing the crackdown on methamphetamine, or speed, police called
on the Federal Government to regulate the importation of pill presses.

"At the moment somebody can order a pill press, bring it into the
country and sell it in the Trading Post or on eBay to individuals who
have no legitimate reason to use it," Detective Inspector Paul
Willingham told the inquiry.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration could issue licences for pill
presses and it could be made an offence to possess such equipment
without a licence, he said.

Researchers told the parliamentary inquiry there were 73,000
dependent methamphetamine users in Australia - almost double the
number addicted to heroin.

The director the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Richard
Mattick, said it was a mistake to think that medicinal therapies,
such as methadone to treat heroin, were the only way to beat drug dependency.

Governments should also be investing in treatments such as cognitive
behavioural therapy and other psychological interventions, he said.

"We have been quite poor in Australia in responding in an accurate
way [to drug use] and this is driven by politics," Professor Mattick
told the inquiry.

Chris Arblaster, the marketing and development director of the
Australian Self Medication Industry, said the repackaging and
rescheduling of pseudoephedrine products had had a marked impact on
the diversion of those drugs into the illicit trade. Before that
"anything up to 50 per cent of the market was open to abuse", he said.