Pseudoephedrine to be back on shelves for winter
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine.
Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated that they may be able to supply the first products by June.
"This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025," Seymour said.
"The Government recognised that New Zealanders want these medicines for winter, and we've done our part in achieving this by changing the law swiftly and overseeing a fast approval process by Medsafe."
"The only step left is for pharmaceutical companies to get the medicines to our shores, which they've indicated they can do by winter."
"Pseudoephedrine was banned because of fears it would be used for P production and following assurances there would be alternatives. Instead, the evidence shows that gangs have continued to produce P, and people who make and sell P have found faster and cheaper ways of doing it while people miss out on effective cold and flu medication."
"If a law doesn't make sense it shouldn't stay there for an eternity," says Seymour, "You don't have to keep rules just because they exist, one of the biggest problems New Zealand has is decades of regulations piling up even if they're not providing any benefit."
"The answer for preventing crime isn't preventing people from doing business. Pharmacists aren't obligated to stock the medication, we've simply removed the red tape and regulation that prevented them from even having that choice."
"Regardless, the drug market has moved on - the reality is that gangs have found other ways of getting methamphetamine. It is not expected that the return of pseudoephedrine will have a great impact on overall supply and demand."
The Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Act Bill passed its final reading unanimously in the House this week. The bill reclassifies pseudoephedrine from a Class B to a Class C controlled drug. Along with changes to the Medicines Regulations 1984, this means that Kiwis will be able to purchase cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine from a pharmacy without a prescription.
According to the Manatū Hauroa Ministry of Health website, when cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine are available again, Kiwis will only be able to buy these medicines following a consultation with a New Zealand-registered pharmacist. Pharmacists must record information, including the person's name and address, and can give advice as appropriate, including to people who should not take pseudoephedrine for clinical reasons.
The new arrangement will not require pharmacists to sell cold and flu products containing pseudoephedrine. It will be up to pharmacists to decide whether their pharmacy supplies these products or not. However, those pharmacists who do choose to stock cold and flu tablets containing pseudoephedrine may become targets for ram-raiders.
However, the Pharmacy Guild Chief Executive Andrew Gaudin is supportive of the new changes.
"We are supportive of changes to increase access to cold and flu medicines, and the recognition of pharmacists' key oversight role in their supply," Gaudin says.
"We acknowledge that safety concerns remain, however pharmacy staff regularly deal with safety and security risks associated with selling medicines. Pharmacies will also not be required to stock these medicines if they choose not to."
"We will continue to work with with officials to ensure that when pharmacies begin supplying these medicines, they are able to do so safely and effectively," Gaudin says
Hawke's Bay App contacted pharmacies this morning and they expressed concern about the safety repercussions that would come with selling medicine containing pseudoephedrine and having to make judgment calls about members of the public trying to purchase it. The pharmacies spoken to were considering not supplying medicine with pseudoephedrine due to the risks involved.
"Concerns from pharmacists surrounding potential security risks should be listened to, and any such events should be closely monitored," Dr Rhys Ponton from the University of Auckland School of Pharmacy told the Science Media Centre.
"The reintroduction of pseudoephedrine should be accompanied by a commitment from Police to aggressively follow up any such events. Such events will inevitably be linked to methamphetamine manufacture which should be a key priority for Police investigation and action."
"At the end of the day, it is difficult to argue that the majority of the law-abiding population should have to suffer and be prevented from seeking relief from the pain and discomfort of congestion, due to illegal activities of a very small section of society."
So why were medicines containing pseudoephedrine banned in the first place?
"The ban of pseudoephedrine in flu products sold from pharmacies was part of the Prime Minister's Action Plan on Meth from 2009," Professor Chris Wilkins, leader of the drug research team at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre at Massey University tells the Science Media Centre. "It was a response to small/medium scale meth production in New Zealand at the time (closing an easy source of precursor supply)."
"Much has changed in methamphetamine manufacture since then in terms of international supply (scale and global connectedness) and the business focus of organised crime groups involved in manufacture and wholesale (e.g. "501" deportees from Australia."
"Nevertheless, drug markets are dynamic and resilient and will no doubt pivot again to the new opportunities and policy change needs to address potential risks of diversion.," says Professor Wilkins.
So can a reintroduction of pseudoephedrine products into New Zealand pharmacies be done safely?
"We think that reintroducing pseudoephedrine products can be done safely, but it must be done carefully," says Sarah Helm, Executive Director of NZ Drug Foundation.
"The illicit market has changed since pseudoephedrine was last available via pharmacies, and the illicit manufacturing networks now use methods that are more cost-effective than extracting pseudoephedrine from pharmaceuticals."
"There is still some level of risk for opportunistic crime and small-scale manufacturing. While the changes are unlikely to increase the existing supply of meth, they may create harm in some communities if we don't monitor and counteract it."
"We do have a specific concern about the risks of certain pseudoephedrine products that come mixed with common painkillers like paracetamol. even though pseudoephedrine has a relatively weak stimulating effect, some people may try to use it recreationally. This can be dangerous if they are taking more than the recommended does, as taking too much paracetamol can quite easily lead to liver damage and even overdose," says Helm.
"We strongly recommend people don't try and use these products recreationally as they won't get you high but can cause irreversible harm."
But does the new Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill go far enough to stop criminal obataining medicine containing pseudoephedrine to produce methamphetamine?
"The criminal market has international sources that are cheaper and easier to obtain, so it is unlikely to greatly contribute to the methamphetamine market," Helm says. "But we do recommend further regulatory protections to safeguard against this like restriciting the number of packs in stock at an individual pharmacy level so that it is impractical to try and obtain volumes that could be used for manufacturing."
"While we still don't know about the practicalities of access, we don't think it would be easy to obtain enough pharmaceutical products to mass produce methamphetamine. According to our estimations, the manufacturing of one kilogram of methamphetamine would need 2,430 packets of pseudoephedrine."
"That said, with these recent changes, we really need our health and support systems to ramp up its services for people who use methamphetamine, to make sure people are not feeling desperate to try to start small-scale manufacturing," says Helms.
