A retired Auckland pharmacist could spend the rest of his life in jail after supplying P ingredients to a narcotics ring.
Samuel Ross Pulman, 69, yesterday pleaded guilty in the High Court in Auckland to one representative charge of manufacturing methamphetamine, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Nine others in the narcotics ring also pleaded guilty.
Pulman had been selling large quantities of pseudoephedrine at the Unichem Pukekohe Pharmacy, where he had worked for six years, The New Zealand Herald reported today.
Pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in P, can be extracted from common cold medicines such as Coldral or Sudafed.
Pulman had opened the pharmacy two hours early from January 2005 to December 2007 to sell the drugs, despite management warning him not to.
Under company policy he was supposed to sell only one packet of medication to a customer and record their details, but he was selling more than one packet, and seldom writing down people's details.
He told police he knew the medication was used to make P.
Pulman, who had no previous convictions, was a pillar of the community, a lifelong Rotary member involved with the Pukekohe Youth Council.
He will be sentenced in July.
The Government is considering introducing a computerised network to allow pharmacists to tell police immediately of any suspicious sales of pseudoephedrine.
But, there are questions over its cost, effectiveness and potential risk to pharmacists' safety.
