SALES CLAMP ON FLU DRUGS

Queenslanders will not be able to buy cold and flu drugs without
photo identification or a pharmacist's approval under a new national
plan to crack down on illegal drug manufacturers.

>From January 1 pharmacy assistants will be banned from selling drugs
containing pseudoephedrine and pharmacists themselves will have to
record the details and sometimes drivers licence numbers of customers
before selling such drugs.

They have also been ordered to question unfamiliar and very frequent
buyers and suspicious purchases will be monitored by the Pharmacy
Guild, police and Queensland Health.

The tougher new regulations are designed to stifle the growing number
of amphetamine labs, especially in Queensland, which is recognised as
the nation's "speed" capital.

Medicines containing pseudoephedrine are often used illegally as a
precursor to manufacture methamphetamine and it is known that some
drug makers have driven from Cairns to Brisbane, stopping at
pharmacies to buy flu drugs along the way.

The crackdown will only affect pharmacies because cold and flu drugs
sold in major supermarkets do not contain pseudoephedrine.

While the new laws mean more work for pharmacists and a grilling for
customers, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said they were necessary
to tackle the drug problem in the state.

"We recognise the overwhelming majority of Queenslanders have a
genuine therapeutic need for these medications," he said.

"But we believe that imposing more stringent point-of-sale controls
on these medicines is necessary to help combat the manufacture of
illicit drugs in Queensland."

Next year, over-the-counter cold and flu tablets containing
pseudoephedrine will be reclassified from schedule two to the
"pharmacist-only" schedule three and it is believed the Federal
Government is also investigating whether to move some to schedule
four or prescription-only.

More than five illegal drug labs are discovered by police in
Queensland every week representing 55 per cent of the national total.

Newly elected Queensland Pharmacy Guild president Tim Logan said that
while the new laws would be frustrating for pharmacists and customers
alike, the administrative interference was necessary to fight the
scourge of speed.

"It's quite regrettable that we have to do that and inconvenience the
general public ," he said.

Spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Geraldine
Moses, pleaded with the public to be patient with pharmacists when
the laws come into effect.

"This will create a logistical nightmare during the cough and cold
season," she said.

"We wish there was another way to try to handle the problem of abuse
and the illegal manufacture of amphetamines."

She said it would have been better to test the new laws first and
implement a monitoring system to judge the effectiveness of the changes.