P cooks go abroad for ingredients

P manufacturers are turning to overseas suppliers for ingredients as a crack-down at pharmacies begins to bite, the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.

Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett told Justice Helen Winkelmann: "Pseudoephedrine and pseudoephedrine products are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in pharmacies throughout New Zealand and there is a strong trend for people involved in the manufacture of methamphetamine to source precursor substances, particularly pseudoephedrine, from overseas countries."

Ms Pollett made her comments at the sentencing of 27-year-old Hong Kong plumber Yu Leung Ho, who was arrested at Auckland Airport in January with enough pseudoephedrine granules to make $300,000 worth of methamphetamine.

Ho, who admitted importing the Class C ingredients and having them for supply, was jailed for two years and two months.

Pseudoephedrine, found in common cold and flu medicines, is a key ingredient in methamphetamine. Police have targeted "shoppers" who visit pharmacies to buy medication and chemists have taken steps to clamp down on sales.

Some have stopped stocking the drugs.

Defence lawyer Adam Couchman said that Ho believed he was bringing in controlled prescription medicines rather than a Class C drug. It was a favour to an acquaintance.

Justice Winkelmann took into account Ho's early guilty pleas and his co-operation with the authorities in trying, unsuccessfully, to make a controlled delivery of the drugs to his contact.

The judge said that the social costs of methamphetamine on families was "terrible", and that people who supplied the ingredients enabled the trade to continue.