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• Pseudoephedrine
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Letters to the Editor
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Pseudoephedrine
No need for switch
From Mr C. London, MRPharmS
I would like to make a comment about the proposal to change pseudoephedrine
to a prescription only medicine.
In New Zealand (where I live) we have one of the world’s worst
problems with regard to illegal conversion of pseudoephedrine, but the
vast majority of raw material does not come from over-the-counter purchases
of pseudoephedrine. Some does come from retail — from burglaries — and
there are still “pseudo-shoppers” (as the police call them)
but most comes from illegal imports and internet purchases.
We do have one small advantage in that we have an extra category of medicines
in addition to “pharmacy only”. This is a “pharmacist
only” medicine that must be sold personally by the pharmacist and
records of the purchaser must be kept which, if appropriate, can be passed
onto the police. Pseudoephedrine is not actually in this category, yet,
but most pharmacies treat it as if it is, keeping records and requiring
photo identification for purchase. I understand that in Australia these
records are sent direct to a central database by broadband internet connection.
This means that if a person buys a pseudoephedrine product in one pharmacy,
when he goes down the road to try to purchase another the pharmacist
will know that he has already bought one that day.
I fail to see how making pseudoephedrine a prescription-only medicine
would make any difference to the problem if OTC purchase is not the principle
source and that does not take account of the vast waste of resources
caused by sending everyone with a bit of nasal congestion to the doctor.
Perhaps it is time that the regulatory authorities had a bit more faith
in the abilities of pharmacists to supervise the purchase of medicines
properly, as the vast majority have done for many years.
Chris London
Milton, New Zealand
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal