Pharmacy break-in after law change

Motueka’s Unichem has had the dubious honour of being the country’s first pharmacy to be the victim of a pseudoephedrine-targeted break-in following the controlled medication’s reintroduction for sale last month.

John Burt, who together with his wife Tran, owns Unichem Motueka Pharmacy and Greenwood Street Pharmacy, says they were woken by a phone call from Tasman Bay Security in the wee hours of Saturday 25 May.

The burglar gained entry by smashing a side window next to the front door on High St. This tripped the pharmacy’s alarm systems, which activated at 2.39am.

TasBay Security was at the site three minutes later, with police and the owners all arriving by 2.50am. Security footage shows the sole burglar, dressed in a hoody, mask and gloves, crouched behind the counter to quickly load packets into a bag. They were disturbed by the security company’s approach and fled the property.

TasBay Security gave chase but lost them when they ran behind the museum and into the Parklands School grounds.

John says that the robber took about 30 packets of medication, with a retail value of about $1300. They did not attempt to take anything else.

Senior Seargent Martin Tunley says that “enquiries are ongoing to identify and locate the offender”.

Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant that is found in medications like Codral, Sudafed and Demazin. It is also used in the manufacture of the illegal street drug methamphetamine, also known as meth, crack, ice or P.  Products containing the precursor drug were withdrawn from sale in New Zealand in 2011, due to a huge increase of pharmacy ram-raids which targeted pseudoephedrine medication.

Pseudoephedrine products were reintroduced last month under the impetus of ACT leader and associate health minister David Seymour, who has previously said that the policy change was “getting rid of red tape that doesn’t make sense and allowing sick New Zealanders greater freedom and choice to purchase effective cold and flu medicines”.

John says that he had felt “nervous trepidation” about the reintroduction of these products, explaining that he had looked forward to their return to sale as they were effective medications, but he was also worried about the increased security risk they presented.

He says that some pharmacies around the country are choosing not to stock them at all.

John’s businesses had been holding more of these products than usual, as their suppliers had all provided the medication more quickly than expected, and John says that stock levels have since been reduced to help mitigate risk.

As well as a monitored alarm system, John says the medication will be locked away at night.

People are also asked for photo identification when purchasing the products, to help with traceability.

“All sales of it are recorded, but I’d like to see it all going into a national database that the police can monitor,” John says.

Since they bought the pharmacies almost 10 years ago, the business owners have had to deal with the occasional shop-lifting incident and a couple of broken windows from rowdy members of the public. However, John says that this is the first time they have been the victims of a break-in.