I am a student, I can barely afford my own rent, let alone a $35 doctor's fee. I can't afford to take time off work because of sickness either, and codral has been my saviour on many an occasion! This new classification is simply ridiculous; I understand the negative effects of P on communities and families, but in my opinion the suppression of the availability of pseudoephedrine will simply cause a shift in the market! Vicks Vaporub can be used as a component is making crystal meth, it is possible to get high from skulling cough syrup for God's sake... do we need to ban ALL effective medicines because of the actions of a wayward minority?

I wonder how many people claiming "nothing else works" have properly investigated other options.

Have you tried things like nasal sprays? Have you tried mucolytic expectorants like guaifenesin (in things like Dimetapp)? Dextromethorphan?

There are other things that work. Generally, you just haven't tried hard enough.

For ages, every time I go to the chemist, I have been advised to take an ME syrup and something to reduce inflammation/fever like paracetamol. And it does work.

All you need to deal with a cold or flu is the pain relief, fever reduction, expectorants, plenty of fluid and plenty of rest. It keeps being said - these things do not cure you. They just let you go out feeling better so you can infect more people.

Tim #193 - I'm ignorant? Well, thanks for proving my point that half of NZ can't even read.

Some contain pseuodeph, some don't. It's all in your head mate, these things are just placebos and a way to make money off the weakminded. I think the best effect this law will have is it will reduce the income of the massive drug companies a little bit. It's all a load of rubbish, and our drug companies haven't found a cure for a single ailment.

As others have said, a bit of lemon, honey & ginger (and a wee dram) fix me up whenever I've got a sore throat and a few sniffles. Otherwise, just deal with it.

As I mentioned before, I used to take a lot of pseudoeph based pills driving a truck (overseas btw, no need for them in NZ) and I can assure you of the ill-effects and health damage these things do to you. Popping a few Lemsip pills might seem a good idea, but try taking them regularly (as you clowns seem to want to do) and see what happens. I prescription will help prevent people having too much of the crap.

This won't stop P, but at least it's an attempt to do something. Labour and Greens have brainwashed so many people into believing prison and strong penalties are a bad thing that crims have had free reign in NZ for the last 9 years or so. I like the idea of the death penalty for running a P lab. That should slow things down a bit!

i could care less, day and night did nothing for me when i was sick and i have no interest in P. This is just typical knee jerk reaction-ism from the government, they want to appear to be doing something to fight the "scourge" of P and they see this as a way to achieve it.. don't get me wrong, i'm aware that P can wreck lives, but this does zero to address the problem. where there's a (black) market for something there will always be people with the cunning and know how to get hold of it (in this case the ingredient pseudoephidrine) through other channels, thereby making it harder to regulate, monitor and/or control.

In response to "A's" comment number 187. Yes you're right Pseudoephedrine isn't a cure for a cold, however it certainly stops people sneezing all over the place, which is one of the biggest ways to infect other people. I think this ban is outrageous. Why should we be punished because criminals make something illegal out of an extremely useful and effective drug.

I'm one of the unfortunate people who find that phenylephrine does not work at all, the only thing I get out of it is an increased desire to throw up. I've talked to people in pharmacies and friends in the health sector and they all say the same thing - that phenylephrine must have been rushed into production to fill a sudden political need to replace pseudoephedrine. When you even get a pharmacist saying the stuff doesn't work you have to question what exactly you are spending your money on.

so have the government thought about how the already crowded doctor's surgeries are expected to cope with the increased patient load because people want these specific cold/flu relievers? THINK government before you act!

Get over it! Stop killing what's left of your pathetic immune systems with more crap from the chemist.

Maybe if you all took better care of yourselves you wouldn't need this stuff to "get better".

By the time you show the symptoms, you're probably already on the mend anyway. Eat some honey and get a grip.

(ps, I am by NO stretch of the imagination a hippie, I go to the doctor for drugs when I need them, but this kind of crap is reserved for hypochondriacs)

Exactly. Pseudoephedrine relieves the symptoms. I find it to be more effective. I don't want to be forced by my government to use a less effective alternative just because a minority have worked out how to kill themselves by altering its chemical make up. I think we should screen that doco that was on in 2002 or 2003 that showed how it dissolves brain tissue. If we can't stop the makers, stop the consumers.

Once when I got a cold I just endured for 7-10 days. That's life. After all, nothing really made much difference, certainly you couldn't cure it.

Then, cold remedies with pseudoephedrine. And, it didn't cure the cold, but it reduced the symptoms. A lot!

And then people started abusing pseudoephedrine, so you couldn't get those remedies as easily. The ones that were sold were not anywhere as effective (for me anyway).

And now, if I want something that works, it will cost me and basically waste the time of my doctor, who doesn't really need to see me if all I've got is a cold.

So, this affects my comfort, but nothing else. I get to go back to having 7-10 more or less unpleasant days if I get a cold.