Turning Sudefed into Speed – New Prevention Network for Pharmacies
Illicit drug making using cold and flu medications is one of the biggest problems for police today– but the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has announced a new online strategy to target these so called ‘pseudoephedrine runners’. The plan has attracted global interest after being successfully implemented in Queensland since last year. Project STOP involves recording details and requesting photo ID of customers and sharing this information via a computer network to keep track of suspicious purchases. Is this compromising the privacy of customers? Pharmacy Guild President Kos Sclavos does not think so, arguing that the crackdown is the only way to stop people turning Sudafed into Speed. However, non-pharmacy members such as National Pharmacies believe that current regulations are enough and individual pharmacists are able to handle suspicious customers by their good judgement.