GONE are the days when a Sudafed shopper could buy 90 cold and flu tablets over the counter in a Launceston pharmacy.
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In those days, the $15 packet of pseudoephedrine could be turned in to $6000 on the street once converted to the drug ice.
At that stage it became clear to chemists that pseudoephedrine needed to be policed beyond reasons relating to high blood pressure.
Pseudoephedrine is the key ingredient in methylamphetamine which, when crystalised, becomes the concentrated drug ice.
``This ice market is big business,'' Newstead Capital Chemist part-owner and pharmacist Doug Will said yesterday.
Like nearly all pharmacies his store uses Project Stop, a computer program providing real time data to authorities about who is buying pseudoephedrine and where.
It requires buyers to show ID and have it recorded before the pseudoephedrine is handed over.
Chemists have discretion to ask for customers' ID but unless you're a little old lady with an obvious cold, expect to have your driver's licence inspected before you buy pseudoephedrine.
That's why many pharmacists believe the Greens' proposal for mandatory ID reporting will have little impact - most chemists are already doing it.
One Launceston chemist, who did not want to be named, said a mandatory system might be onerous on pharmacists who should be allowed to maintain their discretion.
However, the Tasmanian branch of Australia's Pharmacy Guild has called for a mandatory system believing it would get rid of the stigma of only some customers being asked for their ID.
``If you're a genuine user, you've got genuine symptoms then you're not going to be refused,'' Launceston pharmacy owner and guild member Harvey Cuthill said of a mandatory system.
``What is going to happen is if somebody is going from one pharmacy to the next and buying pseudoephedrine, this system will pick them up in a flash.''