Recent "pill shopper" catches in Otago are the result of vigilance and communication between pharmacists, but do not reflect a growing problem, police say.
Pill shopping is when a person goes from one pharmacy to the next, buying pseudoephedrine-based cold tablets to sell onwards, usually to gangs, who then turn them into methamphetamine, or "P".
Detective Sergeant John Hedges, the officer in charge of the Dunedin CIB's organised crime unit, said pill shopping was happening continuously, but at a low level in Dunedin.
"We don't get a high number of reports of it. It's probably at about the same level as incidents of making P, which is pretty low levels."
Police managed the situation thanks to the vigilance of local pharmacists, who would notify one another when a customer acted suspiciously.
They contacted police if the person attempted to buy multiple pseudoephedrine-based products, or such products from several different pharmacies.
People from all walks of life were caught buying pseudoephedrine-based products, he said.
Last month, a 36-year-old Dunedin woman admitted buying pseudoephedrine products for "on supply", after she bought three packets of pseudoephedrine-based cold remedies in one day by visiting four Dunedin pharmacies.
New Zealand Pharmacy Guild chief executive Annabel Young said it was likely the Dunedin pharmacists had called each other when they noticed the woman behaving suspiciously.
The same thing probably happened when a Christchurch couple were arrested earlier this year after pill shopping at pharmacies in South Canterbury and Central Otago.
The couple appeared in the Queenstown District Court last month.
Ms Young said it was probable more pill shoppers would be caught if the Government introduced a version of the real-time buyer-record scheme - the Stop Programme - operating in Queensland, Australia, pharmacies.
The guild had been lobbying the Government for two years, without success, to introduce the programme, which requires anyone buying products containing pseudoephedrine to produce photo identification.
Their details are entered in the pharmacy computer, which is linked to police.
Each time a person buys a pseudoephedrine product, an alert is triggered, and after the fourth purchase police will interview the buyer.
The programme has resulted in a drop in pill shopping in Australia and is also credited with helping to decrease the number of P labs.
Prime Minister John Key is considering a report from his chief science adviser, Prof Sir Peter Gluckman, on how to curb the methamphetamine epidemic, in which it is understood he recommends the adoption of the Stop Programme.
Prof Gluckman also recommends banning the sale of over-the-counter cold and flu tablets containing pseudoephedrine, but critics have said a ban on over-the-counter pseudoephedrine products would force cold and flu sufferers to use an inferior substitute and might have little effect on the P trade.
A pseudoephedrine ban would see almost 50 products removed from pharmacies.
Pharmacists are already exercising stricter controls over such products: by May, sales had decreased 20% year on year.
