Cold and flu medicine will need prescription

Photo / Martin Sykes

Anyone with a touch of the sniffles may now have to cough up more money to feel better.

Prime Minister John Key announced this afternoon that pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient in many cold and flu medication, will become a Class B2 prescription-only drug.

The move means people will have to go to their doctor for a prescription before they can purchase the drug.

But it may not stop there.

Mr Key has asked for Medsafe to consider a total ban on pseudoephedrine, which is used to make the illegal drug "P", pure methamphetamine.

Those who sneeze at paying to see the doctor for cold medicine will still be able to purchase remedies containing phenylephrine over-the-counter.

Pseudoephedrine was all a P-cook needed to get their drug enterprise started, Mr Key said.

"What seems like straight-forward pain and symptom relief to you and me is gold to a drug-cook."

Police reported finding domestically bought cold and flu tablets in one third of the P labs they bust.

The Government also focused on other ways to restrict criminal access to precursor chemicals.

A customs anti-drug taskforce will be created with 40 customs officers to be redeployed, the police will focus on gangs and those who make P and will have new powers to search for evidence.

Gangs and drug dealers would respond to the tighter restrictions by trying to source more pseudoephedrine internationally but "we will be ready for them", Mr Key said.

The new customs taskforce would undertake intensive inspections and use new techniques.

"I'm not going to give the P smugglers a tip-off by revealing what those techniques are."

Proceeds of crime seized by the Crown will be directed to anti-P initiatives.

Those addicted to P will get extra help through an extra $22 million funding for additional rehab beds, frontline workers, improved helpline and greater power for compulsory treatment.

The changes were about "fighting criminals, but they are also about reducing demand".

Mr Key said government chief executives would be accountable for getting results.

"I am determined that we will use the full force of the Government's arsenal to fight the problem of P, a seriously addictive drug that is ruining lives.

"P hurts not just users and their families but also law-abiding New Zealanders who suffer from the crime it creates," he said.

P was a "very New Zealand" problem, he said.

Legislation would be introduced into Parliament soon to make the changes, Mr Key said.

The Government's Action Plan on Methamphetamine follows a report by Mr Key's chief science advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman.

Sir Peter said pseudoephedrine had been used as a nasal decongestant since the 1940s.

Phenylephrine could not be used as a precursor for P and was a "generally effective alternative", he said.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that phenylephrine will work for at least 80 per cent of people but not for others."

The Netherlands, Mexico and the American state of Oregon have eliminated over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine-containing medicines without "unacceptable patient inconvenience", Sir Peter said.

"The options available depend on how one weighs up consumer convenience against the public interest in maximally eliminating access to methamphetamine (P) precursors."

This year's "The War on P" series in the Herald quoted the loved ones of P users describing how they were at their wits' end trying to find treatment for the addiction.

One mother said she watched her son cry on the phone as he begged to be let into a rehabilitation programme.

- with NZ HERALD STAFF