Australia: Clampdown on cold tablets to stop drug trade

Pharmacies will hide big-brand cold and flu tablets under the counter and restrict their sale under a nationwide plan to stop the manufacture of illicit drugs from their ingredients.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia told the Herald yesterday that it was considering going further by requesting identification checks for all cold and flu medicine sales.

The guild's national president, John Bronger, said pharmacies were working with police to stop criminals accumulating large quantities of tablets for their
pseudoephedrine, which is used to make methylamphetamine - better known as speed.

Under voluntary guidelines, pharmacists are encouraged to keep brands such as Sudafed, Demazin and Clarinase hidden from view. "These are the pills from which
pseudoephedrine can be easily extracted, so they would be stored away under the counter. Staff would assess the requests on a case-by-case basis to see if they
are legitimate," Mr Bronger said.

The guidelines suggest pharmacists reduce their stock of tablets and limit sales of pseudoephedrine-based drugs to one packet per customer.

But Mr Bronger conceded the sales cap could be ineffective if criminals were prepared to buy stock from across large areas.

"You've got criminal gangs or runner gangs, as they are sometimes called, that do speed runs up and down the east coast and other areas. They basically go to town after town and buy small amounts at each until they build up a large number of packets.

"So as a result of that, at a later stage, if necessary, we'll be asking for identification for all of these treatments. It might have to occur if it gets to that, as drastic as that sounds for cold and flu."

A spokesman for Pfizer Australia, which makes Sudafed, said it was supportive of the move as long as it did not make it harder for sick people to get treatment.

The company's media manager, Craig Regan, said: "We've actually been co-operating with the guild on this. Our view is that as long as the people who need it still
get it, then we don't mind. We're happy to stop criminals."

Drug manufacturers had dropped bulk bonuses, removing the incentive for pharmacies to buy large stocks at reduced cost.

Mr Regan said Pfizer had spent $14 million researching technology that would lock the formula of Sudafed to stop people extracting pseudoephedrine.

"But the crooks broke it down, so we're trying again."

Detective Inspector Paul Willingham, of the NSW Police drug squad, said speed was growing in popularity at an alarming rate.

"Methylamphetamine is probably the fastest-growing drug being located in the state and across the country," he said. "In the clandestine drug laboratories located in NSW last year - those that were producing methylamphetamine - we would estimate
90 per cent of them were sourced from cough and cold tablets.

"This is a last-ditch effort to let the industry regulate itself, and it's reassuring to see them taking a positive stand on this, but who knows, it might get to the point where ID checks are needed."

Sixty arrests had been made for pharmacy running, most coming after tip offs from pharmacies, Mr Willingham said.

Last week two senior members of the Nomads bikie gang, Richard James Walsh, 33, and Todd Douglas Little, 38, were given record jail terms for making and supplying
speed.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Tue, 08 Mar 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Author: Justin Norrie
Copyright: 2005 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.fairfax.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441

Australia: Pharmacists help crack down on drug production

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has launched a campaign to stop criminal groups using cold and flu tablets to produce illegal drugs.

Police say up to 90 per cent of methylamphetamine, or "speed", manufactured in Australia comes from pseudoephedrine tablets sold in pharmacies.

Under the guild's plan, cold and flu medications will be kept behind the counter and customers would be limited to buying only one packet at a time.

The guild's president, John Bronger, says the plan makes it difficult for criminals to access large amounts of pseudoephedrine.

"Criminal gangs have been known to engage in "speed runs" up and down the east coast and other areas, targeting pharmacies and accumulating a large number of packets," Mr Bronger said.

"This is the type of behaviour that we want to help police stop."

Detective Inspector Paul Willingham of the New South Wales Drug Squad says the scheme will prevent criminal groups from manufacturing speed.

"Unfortunately pseudoephedrine has been targeted very, very heavily by criminal syndicates for a number of years now," he said.

"Over the past couple of years this trend is increasing and it seems to be growing at an alarming rate."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Mon, 07 Mar 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia
Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34

USA: Out front: HIV Prevention

In New York City, posters on Chelsea neighborhood phone booths announce "Buy Crystal, Get HIV Free!" as a nearby mobile teen health outreach unit dubbed "The HOTT Van" distributes condoms, counseling and HIV prevention information to the city's estimated 10,000-12,000 homeless LGBT youth.

In Miami, specialists log in to online chat rooms during daytime high-traffic periods, offering live answers to safer-sex questions. At night, outreach workers filter through the popular Miami Winter Party, handing out prevention pamphlets, drug abuse harm reduction information and counselor's cell numbers to circuit revelers.

In Cleveland, OH, a group of young men campaigns in oversized rubber penis suits, handing out condom-and-lube kits to patrons of gay bars. In Montana, outreach workers in plaid flannel and denim overalls hit the back country roads and farm lanes to bring the message to non-wired, rural LGBTs.

Nearly 25 years after the onset of the AIDS pandemic, HIV prevention campaigns have become a ubiquitous, even routine, aspect of gay male life. Some programs follow traditional models -- free condom distribution, individual counseling and street-level pamphleteering. Others deliberately provoke the media and the community with frank, eye-catching ads and controversial strategies to reach their target audience. Both approaches must successfully balance the risk of overexposure -- and therefore inattention -- with the continual need to reach out clearly and effectively. (To see some images from recent campaigns, click here.)

After February's "supervirus"

Following the announcement by New York City Department of Public Health officials that the man identified as having been infected with a rare, resistant strain of HIV was a crystal meth addict who had engaged in dozens of anonymous sexual encounters, current HIV prevention programs came under fire. Much of the fingerpointing came not from anti-gay conservatives, however, but from longtime LGBT leaders decrying current approaches as outdated, psychologically "soft," and increasingly ineffective.

"This reported new virus is a huge wake-up call," said activist and filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell in a recent roundtable that addressed the issue on this site. "I don't mind scare tactics from peers in the community -- better that than from the goddamned government. There needs to be serious cash for new education campaigns with new slogans that are tailored to the present situation. The recent crystal ads were a good start, but the messages have to be more specific to young homos' lives: If you become positive, you'll have a much more difficult time finding a boyfriend. If you become positive you'll have to get a job with health insurance for the rest of your life. If you're poor, you could die. If you continue to fuck around unsafely, you could die faster,"

Facing other challenges

Internal criticism is not the only problem facing HIV prevention programs. Crystal meth use, downlow culture, a rise in barebacking (and STD transmission rates) and, some say, a growing, misinformed apathy about HIV brought on by the successes of recent treatment medications all pose individual challenges. Staying "on message" often means addressing each problem individually, straining many organizations' resources -- at a time when federal resources are getting harder to come by.

The Bush administration has become more forthright in its push for abstinence-until-marriage programs over sexual education (resulting in de facto neglect for LGBTs), and has advocated severe cuts in funds to programs that advocate needle exchange, condom distribution, safer-sex education and minority outreach. The proposed 2006 budget, for instance, cuts $4 million from the Centers for Disease Control's HIV prevention and surveillance program and flat funds almost every other outreach program in the country -- while setting aside $38 million to abstinence programs, which do not include education about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted.) Conservative groups are decrying sexually explicit information, not just in schools and rural areas but in the national media as well.

Are HIV prevention programs still effective? What works and what doesn't -- and how are some programs adapting to community trends? Between the message and the infection, where's the prevention connection?

PlanetOut decided to investigate these questions by looking at some of the current campaigns specifically targeting LGBTs. In the next installment of this series, we begin where it all started -- on the streets -- tagging along with some young, sex-positive prevention volunteers to talk to people one-on-one about HIV.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 07 March 2005
Source: Gay.com
Website: http://www.gay.com

Australia: In defence of ice

RE ICE not a nice vice - name and address withheld (Northern Territory News, Feb 28) is sadly mistaken that Amphetamines are the most destructive drug in our society causing misery, destruction and crime.

Tell that to the tens of thousands of Australians who use the drug on a regular basis for work, rest or play.

They certainly don’t suffer misery or destruction. In the unlikely event that they are exposed to the criminal justice system, it is because of an outdated piece of legislation that prohibits their drug of choice.

In the right environment and with the right people, Ice is a fantastic drug and its popularity can only be expected to grow. Let’s work with it, not against it.

Drug crimes are victimless crimes. Robert Chin only sold his product to willing buyers. Justice Dean Mildren did the right thing when he sentenced Chin to the mandatory 28 days’ jail, rather than expose him to years of human rights abuses in the NT correctional system.

We can only hope that the judiciary are starting to question the failure of drug prohibition.

Gary Meyerhoff
Parap

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Fri, 4th March 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://www.ntnews.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283
Author: Gary Meyerhoff

Crystal: How we can stop it

Jason Riggs of the STOP AIDS Project

"A few months ago, I met this hot guy. The minute I saw him, I thought, 'I'm going home with him tonight.' And then it happened. I couldn't believe this guy would come on to me. I was ecstatic to end up at his place, and I didn't think twice when he told me he was high on speed. I couldn't say no; besides, I've done other drugs and didn't have a problem with them. We fucked for hours that night. We did things that I never thought I would do, things I hadn't even considered doing. I didn't use a condom. I just didn't care and neither did he."

"A few weeks later I did it again. It only took a few times doing crystal to undo years of safe sex, and I didn't even consider myself addicted. I was just a casual crystal user and thought I had it under control. There is no doubt in my mind that using crystal had a lot to do with my becoming HIV-positive."

This is just one of the stories that STOP AIDS Project has heard since we first began discussing crystal use in the gay community in the mid-1990s. Over and over again at our forums in 1996, gay guys would talk about the great sex and the good time they had on crystal. Several of us at STOP AIDS worried that the forums were fast becoming a commercial for crystal use.

But like every drug commercial, the warnings of side effects soon followed all the images of frolicking on the dance floor and in bed. Soon the same people who talked about how great the high was started sharing about how far they'd slipped into the grip of something they couldn't get out of, to the point where the only thing that mattered in their life was chasing that one elusive high.

People talked about being so paranoid they couldn't leave the house; about the intense depression that followed the high; and the craving to be on crystal outweighing falling in love, being with their friends or even having sex.

Many of the same people who talk about how great it was have also decided never to do it again.

Here are some reasons why:

-- Crystal is more addictive than heroin. Some people report having a full-blown addiction just six months after trying it for the first time. Others used crystal recreationally for a while but stumbled into increasingly regular use.
-- 30 percent of new HIV infections in San Francisco are related to crystal use.
-- 25 percent of syphilis cases are related to crystal use.
-- Gay men in California who use speed are 200 percent more likely to have STDs than those who don't.
-- Gay and bi men who use crystal are 300-400 percent more likely to get HIV than those who don't.
-- HIV-pos men who use crystal regularly skip their medication routines and the drug suppresses their immune systems, causing increased difficulties in treating HIV.

Crystal users who are getting HIV and STDs are not just the full-blown addicts -- it's happening to the casual users too: people we count as our friends, co-workers, roommates and boyfriends.

The truth is, we all know crystal is a problem. It not only threatens us individually, but threatens our community's health in other ways as well. Almost every gay man in San Francisco, and in many other cities, knows someone who has lost a friend, roommate or partner because of that person's crystal use. Moreover, crystal use is eroding trust and friendships, the very foundations of community.

So what do we do about it? Each one of us has a role to play.

Each of us in the community needs to ask ourself why people are drawn to the drug in the first place. What are we looking for in crystal meth, and are there other ways of finding it?

Each of us needs to change the community norms and values that make crystal use acceptable. Face it: We are a community built on sexual liberation, a live-and-let-live perspective. However, crystal is the crack of the gay community and needs to be discouraged on a communitywide level. When HIV/AIDS first emerged, our community rose up to care for one another and taught each other how to care for ourselves and our friends. Crystal use should be no different.

We need more crystal-use prevention efforts, and they need to be big. We need to harness our community's creative efforts and need our community's best advertising agencies to come up with large-scale campaigns that help anyone who's considering crystal use to make a truly informed choice.

We need more treatment slots. If you want to kick crystal out of your life or reduce your use, you should be able to get those services on demand.

We need to get strategic and pinpoint the situations where crystal is most likely to compound risk. When guys are cruising on the Internet, we need to make sure they're making informed choices about their health. Some sites, like manhunt.net, have taken a great step in this direction by adding "no pnp" to their profile screen. This helps guys who want to find a partner who's not on crystal to find one. It will help guys to stay safer.

Each of us needs to ask Internet providers, party promoters and bathhouse and sex club owners to do everything in their power not to facilitate our community tearing itself apart because of crystal addiction.

Each of us needs to ask ourselves hard questions about how we walk the tightrope between not enabling someone to continue in their addiction and not abandoning them because they are too messy for us to help.

Each of us needs to ask ourselves hard questions about crystal dealers, gay or straight. Are they our friends? If, as many gay men say they are, then how can they help us more than they hurt?

As gay and bisexual men, we benefit from the community in many ways, as a place to meet each other and enjoy places free of homophobia to work, live and play. Each of us individually has a role to play in shaping the culture of our community. Together we need to promote an ethos of shared responsibility and support among individuals, friends and partners, families, government, community and businesses.

Maybe, then, we might all find what we're looking for.

Jason Riggs is the Commucations Director of the STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco. The STOP AIDS Project works to prevent the spread of HIV among gay and bisexual men in San Francisco. If you would like more information on how to get involved, please visit www.stopaids.org.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: March 2005
Source: Gay.com
Website: http://www.gay.com
Author: Jason Riggs