Methamphetamine makers shop online to elude police

By SCOTT MacLEOD and NZPA

A legal loophole means at least 4 million cold and flu tablets imported this year are likely to be used to manufacture illegal methamphetamine drugs such as speed and P.

A Customs manager who has seen imports of the pill leap 30-fold in two years said the influx was astronomical and Customs was stopping barely one-fifth of the consignments.

Pills are being ordered through the internet after a police crackdown on the purchase of large quantities from pharmacies.

Illegal pill buyers can be jailed for five years under the Misuse of Drugs Act if caught buying flu pills from chemists. But no one importing by mail has yet been charged under the act because its wording makes it hard to prove possession of the pills.

A trail of fake names and addresses makes it even harder to catch the importers. The problems emerged as border seizures of flu pills surged from 32,600 two years ago to 530,000 so far this year.

The Government has been aware of the weakness in the law for more than six months. It might take a further three months to tighten the law, possibly by reclassifying pills containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as class C controlled drugs, the same classification as cannabis.

Pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in cold and flu medications such as Sudafed, and Nurofen, could be moved from the Medicines Act to the Misuse of Drugs Act, says Taranaki District Health Board chief pharmacist Elizabeth Plant.

That recommendation had been made to Parliament by the expert advisory committee on drugs, she said. The change would give police greater powers of search and arrest.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson confirmed that talks on a change were being held with drug companies and pharmacies. Any change would need Cabinet approval.

The Customs manager of drug investigations, Simon Williamson, said he expected staff to seize 1 million cold and flu pills by the end of this year - a figure he believed was less than 20 per cent of total shipments.

His staff had snared individual shipments of more than 50,000 pills. The tablets could be bought on the internet from stores in Asia for 2c each and sold to drug factories in New Zealand for up to $1.

The drug factories were able to make 70g of speed for every 100g of flu medication.

"We're getting carton-loads coming through," Mr Williamson said. "These are not boxes, but packing containers. We're seeing pure ephedrine being imported, body-packers coming through the airport, crushed tablets from Sydney, commercial cargo and courier mail."

Customs was boosting its drug investigation team from 22 to 32 and hiring four new analysts. But that staff increase was approved before pill imports exploded, and was unlikely to meet the rocketing workload.

"Our existing staff are being soaked up now," Mr Williamson said. "It's totally absorbing our limited resources."

The loophole arose when the Misuse of Drugs Act was toughened so that shoppers buying pills from chemists could be charged with possessing a "precursor" for speed.

It proved difficult to apply the act to imports by mail.

Customs investigations manager Matt Roseingrave said Customs had the power to seize the pills at the border, and was doing so. Much of the difficulty was in proving guilt.

Parliament's ministerial action committee on alcohol and drugs, chaired by Jim Anderton, was awaiting official advice on the loophole as long ago as March.

A spokeswoman for Mr Anderton said one report had been received urging that pseudoephedrine in the flu pills be reclassified.

Any law changes would "hopefully" take place by the end of the year.

pf* Speed-fuelled criminals have been blamed for a surge in violent crime during the past five years, including several murders. Last year police shut down 147 speed factories, compared with 9 in 2000.

How it works

Ordinary cold and flu pills are key ingredients in methamphetamine drugs such as P.

Drug labs often use "shoppers" who buy the pills at pharmacies, but they can be jailed for five years if caught.

Drugmakers have responded by importing millions of pills over the internet - with far less risk of being found out.

The Government is now considering making these cold and flu pills class C controlled drugs like cannabis.