Proposed controls relating to the sale of pseudoephedrine products are unlikely to see the product reappearing on pharmacy shelves in Rotorua.
However, the scheme has caught the interest of Taupo pharmacists.
Police are investigating an electronic sales monitoring system for pharmacies to stop cold and flu products being used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Based on an Australian model, it would allow pharmacies to share information, see where and when people had last bought the product and how much they acquired.
The move is aimed at stopping people going from pharmacy to pharmacy stocking up on the drugs which are then used to make pure methamphetamine (P).
However, Rotorua pharmacists say a city-wide ban on the sale of the drugs, introduced in 2003, is working well and the days of selling the product are over.
Ngongotaha pharmacist Kirsty Croucher said she believed the days of selling pseudoephedrine products were long gone.
There were now alternatives for the treatment of colds and flu which worked equally as well as pseudoephedrine and most people were happy with them. A few people still asked for pseudoephedrine-based products but it was only available to those with a doctor's prescription.
Since the ban had been introduced break-ins were less of an issue and staff felt safer in their job, Ms Croucher said.
Another Rotorua pharmacist, Ian Edward, said any decision about stocking pseudoephedrine if a monitoring system was introduced, would need to be a community-wide one - not an individual pharmacy register.
Most locals knew Rotorua pharmacies did not stock medication containing pseudoephedrine and people from out of town generally applauded the move when they found out about it.
Taupo pharmacist Mike Riordan from Mainstreet Pharmacy said four or five years ago the monitoring system would have been ideal but there had been a real decline in "pill shoppers" - people buying cold and flu drugs to make methamphetamine.
"They realise they can't access them as readily. We don't see them anymore," he said.
Mr Riordan said he supported any measures to stop the manufacture of P but questioned the logistics and confidentiality aspects of the proposed electronic monitoring. Pharmacies were already careful about who they sold the drug to.
However, monitoring was a better option that the outright banning of the drug, Mr Riordan said.
While there were alternative drugs, for many people the pseudoephedrine-based products worked best.
Another Taupo pharmacist, who did not want to be named, said the electronic monitor was a "brilliant" idea.
He said pharmacists were presently having to make tough judgement calls regarding those they sold pseudoephedrine to meaning at times people who actually needed it were missing out.
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