KEY POINTS:
A legal loophole is preventing New Zealand from creating a computer network which would alert police to suspicious purchases of medicines which are being processed into the drug P.
The Australian Government has allocated funding for a nationwide database after the successful Queensland trial of a system called Project STOP, which records the driver's licence details of anyone buying drugs such as decongestants containing pseudoephedrine, which are used to make P.
Queensland police are sent alerts from the database when repeat purchases are made. They have since reported a 23 per cent reduction in the amount of P labs being discovered.
New Zealand police and the Ministry of Health were informed of the Australian trial by the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand late last year, but hit a legal hurdle in initiating a similar scheme in New Zealand because of the privacy laws surrounding the use of driver's licences.
Some New Zealand pharmacies demand identification when people buy drugs containing pseudoephedrine.
But Euan Galloway, chief pharmacist adviser to the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand, says the process is "more bluff than anything".
Whereas their Australian counterparts are alerted by the online database, New Zealand police must request handwritten or faxed information from pharmacies.
Mr Galloway said the current process was slow, inconsistent and solely reliant on the goodwill of pharmacists.
Pharmacy staff could deny any sale without identification if they saw the need, but a database would assist in that decision-making process and allow much faster intercepts by police.
The Australian database alerted pharmacists and police when a person last bought drugs containing pseudoephedrine or if they had been declined a sale. It was also a deterrent to those customers.
"If you're dishonest, you know that you will be being tracked."
Mr Galloway said the hold-up in getting a "live" computer system in New Zealand was due in part to laws surrounding our driver's licences.
"In New Zealand the driver's licence can only be demanded for the purposes of identifying yourself as a licensed driver," he said.
"The Australian driver's licence can be used for the way in which it is used in Project STOP. It appears that ours can't but police and civil liberty groups are currently trying to determine whether that is the case or not.
"On first reading the [Privacy Act] legislation, the answer's no. But there might be ways around that."
Manually recording pseudoephedrine purchases was also costly for business as pharmacy staff had to take time off work to testify in court against offenders.
Mr Galloway said other issues, including funding, needed to be worked through before a live database could operate.
It could cost as much as "a few million dollars" to find suitable computer software, broadband internet access and computer security protection for stores.
He said another problem needing resolution was what pharmacy staff would do when people who did not have a driver's licence needed medication containing pseudoephedrine.
Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said legal experts were currently looking into the privacy concerns surrounding the initiation of a New Zealand version of Project STOP.
"There were some difficulties being faced up to in terms of human rights and some of the methods of implementation were in question. There were some issues which officials in New Zealand are keeping a close watch on."
There was no time frame on when a decision would be reached, he said.
Police Association president Greg O'Connor said he would like a database set up to deter criminals and to identify any "errant" pharmacies where pseudoephedrine products were being sold carelessly.
A database would provide another tool to help reduce one of the ways people were accessing P.
"It makes so much sense."
MEDIC ALERT
IN AUSTRALIA
A database is being set up which alerts chemists when customers return to buy medicines used to make P.
IN NEW ZEALAND
Police investigated the system but found privacy and human rights rules prevented the use of driver's licence details to track pharmacy purchases.
