CHEMISTS HELP IN DRUG CLAMPDOWN

Pharmacists are strangling the trade in amphetamine precursors and forcing
illegal drug-manufacturers to turn to cyber space for their ingredients.

For over two years pharmacists and police in Canterbury have co-operated to
cut the sale of common cold and 'flu remedies to criminals using them as
the base ingredient in methamphetamine.

Police said the effects of this and similar programmes around the country
were beginning to show, with criminal manufacturers now forced to use the
Internet to buy and bring the drugs into the country.

The Canterbury Police drug squad head, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg
Williams, said police and pharmacists had worked together since 2001 to
monitor sales of pseudoephedrine-based pills.

"It's starting to have an impact ... manufacturers are having to move to
other areas to source them," Mr Williams said.

"It's an evolutionary process. They (manufacturers) adapt as one area is
closed down."

Pharmacists are considered a key element in the fight against the
substance's use in New Zealand, which has one the highest levels of use of
the drug in the world.

Customs have reported meth-manufacturers ordered millions of cold and 'flu
tablets through the Internet after pharmacies clamped down on
over-the-counter sales.

The cold remedies are being imported in shipping containers, commercial
cargo, courier mail, and carried in by smugglers.

Those caught buying the drugs for use as a precursor substance for
manufacturing face prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Mr Williams said police had begun to work with businesses that stocked
other chemicals or hardware used in the manufacturing process, to monitor
the trade in those goods as well.

He said the most recent find of a clandestine lab in Christchurch was three
weeks ago, when police came across a small box-kit in a person's home after
executing a search warrant on another matter.

Christchurch pharmacist Peter Cooke said the city's pharmacists were
acutely aware of their role in helping police hit methamphetamine
manufacturers.

He said high-dose pseudoephedrine remedies were kept off shop floors ­ some
shops did not stock them at all ­ and low-dose medicines were kept in
cabinets out of immediate reach of customers.

Customers would usually be asked for identification and a home address
before they would be sold a packet of medicine.

In Gisborne, all pharmacies had stopped stocking the remedies and as a
result burglaries had fallen.

Mr Cooke said burglaries were a problem in Christchurch as criminals sought
out the lucrative ingredient ­ a pack of 30 costs between $11 and $14 but
can fetch up to $110 on the black market ­ to sell on to manufacturers.