Drug Free World Fiji founder Kalesi Volatabu has stressed the need for authorities to better monitor the sale and distribution of pseudoephedrine in the country.
During an interview on The Fiji Times online news portal, The Lens@177 yesterday, Ms Volatabu said cold medicine, pseudoephedrine — a precursor to methamphetamine-was easily available to consumers even without a prescription.
She also called on members of the public to be cautious about drug “cocktails” as there was now a growing concern about polysubstance use in the country – which involves the use of two or more drugs at a time.
Ms Volatabu said things needed to change now.
“We look at the HIV; this time last year we had three cases; we’ve got 10 now, so it’s already triple that number,” she said.
“Do we have to wait till what, the whole 12 months and then see the horrible number, or do we want to do something? Now we tend to wait till it blows up in our face before doing anything, so instead of waiting for Government to do something, let’s keep pushing for our works in the grassroots.”
“We don’t even have a registry, and we don’t monitor pharmacists,” said Ms Volatabu.
“Anyone can just open their own pharmacy, so there is no control.”
Ms Volatabu said one of the major busts in the country involved a pharmaceutical company.
“We’ve had a few cases where all these (precursors) are coming through all the pharmacies.
“Now for crystal meth, the ingredient that balances those toxic chemicals is pseudoephedrine.
“We don’t control that, In Australia, yes, we do.
“If you buy pseudoephedrine, which is a cold medicine, you need a prescription to actually get that.
“Here I can get five from one chemist, another five from another chemist, and the next five from another.”
Ms Volatabu said there was a need to review all laws across Fiji.
“It’s all across, even from border security; even our legislation and regulation need to be changed.
“We need to do an overhaul across the country.”
