Pharmacies fight to stop P-runners

The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand is urging the government to consider introducing the successful Australian initiative called Project STOP into New Zealand pharmacies to help the fight against methamphetamine.

Project STOP is an online tool used to track sales of pseudoephedrine and has contributed to a decrease in the number of clandestine drug laboratories and assisted in more than 30 arrests in Queensland, Australia.

The system was developed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and is voluntary.

The tool has been running throughout Australia since 2007, and in Queensland since 2005.

"As frontline health professionals, pharmacists see firsthand the devastating effects of the drug P on New Zealand communities. Pharmacists want to play their part in curbing the abuse of this horrendous drug," says New Zealand guild chief executive Annabel Young.

Pseudoephedrine is the key ingredient of many common products used to treat colds and flu but is also used to make P.

Project STOP makes it extremely difficult for pseudo-runners – people that travel from pharmacy to pharmacy accumulating enough pseudoephedrine-based products to manufacture a significant quantity of P – to elude the authorities.

Once implemented Project STOP can also be used to monitor sales of other drugs and has been used to track sales of Tamiflu in Queensland during the recent Influenza A - H1N1 - virus pandemic. It could also be used to track sales of other medicines that have the potential for abuse, such as codeine. This would greatly assist pharmacists in making informed decisions about supplying these drugs.

- © Fairfax NZ News