Response to methylamphetamine threat needs balance, MHRA told
Controls over pseudoephedrine and ephedrine need to be balanced and proportionate, the Serious Organised Crime Agency has told the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Responding to the MHRA’s proposal to make all medicines containing
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine available
only on prescription (PJ, 10 March,
p269), SOCA said that US legislation to limit the over-the-counter availability
of pseudoephedrine had had a significant impact on the domestic production
of illicit methylamphetamine. But it warned that domestic production
in the US had never amounted to more than 20 per cent of the illicit
supply and that controls over sales could be circumvented. Most methylamphetamine
was produced in “super-labs” by Mexican drug traffickers.
In the US, pseudoephedrine products used to be available in unlimited
quantities from supermarkets. Subsequent changes, which vary from state
to state, included restricting the product to supplies from pharmacies,
requiring customers to produce photo-ID and sign for purchases, and limiting
supplies to a maximum of 9g per person over a 30-day
period.
SOCA said that it had not changed its view that the harm caused in the
UK by methylamphetamine was currently low, but that the threat of future
harm was great if a market for the drug developed. It added that the
conditions that enabled the rapid spread of methylamphetamine abuse in
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US were now present in the UK.
These conditions were:
• An established market for problematic polydrug users
• An established recreational drug market
• Affordability
• Light controls over precursors and chemicals used in manufacture
SOCA also said that current demand for methylamphetamine in the UK was
met by importing the drug from overseas.
The MHRA’s consultation on the matter closed this week. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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