Chemists' ban foils P shoppers

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Gisborne's 11 pharmacies have seen a big reduction in the number of burglaries since they took several cold and flu medicines from their shelves.

The burglars left behind strong drugs and took cheap flu pills they could sell to illegal methamphetamine factories, where they were made into speed and P.

The pharmacists were also each getting up to 15 visits a week from people pretending to be ill and wanting packets of the cold and flu pills.

Their solution was to fax police details of suspicious customers and largely stop selling the pills.

But the move denies people with blocked noses access to some of the best decongestants on the market.

Police and pharmacists said the drop-off in P-related crime was marked.

Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Scott said he had received five faxes a day from pharmacies last year about pill shoppers, but that had dropped to one a week.

"Obviously they know now that those drugs are not available."

Pharmacy'53 owner Nigel Campbell said he was burgled three times in the six months to April.

But the break-ins stopped when the new system started to bite.

"They weren't going for the drugs with supposed abuse potential, but going for the cough and cold shelf and cleaning it out."

McLean's Pharmacy owner Barb McLean said she used to see shoppers - often clearly from out of town - checking her shelves and looking for security cameras.

"We don't get those people coming in anymore."

One pharmacist said the police fax system meant every pharmacist in town knew of suspicious customers within 30 minutes of them visiting the first shop.

The number of burglaries and robberies had reduced considerably.

"Now that the [pills] are not on the shelf, you don't hear of colleagues getting hit like they did 15 months ago."

Another unnamed pharmacist said he kept a few packets hidden away but "if you come in here and I don't recognise you, even if you show me ID, you won't get any".

Items no longer sold include Sudafed and Dimetapp products containing large amounts of the pseudoephedrine used to make P.

One pharmacy owner said he stocked small quantities of "combination products" in which other chemicals were mixed with the pseudoephedrine, making it hard to extract.

Police and pharmacists in several other places - notably Hamilton and parts of Auckland - are also using a fax-alert system.

And some pharmacists in towns such as Kawerau have put signs in their windows saying they no longer sell pseudoephedrine.

The main reason for Gisborne's success is that the pharmacists have taken collective action, and pill-shoppers now avoid the city.

But in Auckland, where most pharmacists demand ID from people buying pseudoephedrine, the burglaries continue.

The Herald spoke to two Auckland pharmacists who had each been burgled three times in three months.

Herald Feature: The P epidemic