The Fiji Pharmaceutical Society is working with the police and government to address any gaps in its legislation that might be exploited by organized criminal elements, especially to traffic and produce methamphetamine.

Society President Priyanka Prasad says they are committed to safeguarding the public against any bad actors who would take advantage of pharmaceuticals to produce illicit substances.

Prasad says the particular medication that can be used to manufacture illegal drugs has now been placed as a prescription only medicine.

“Therefore, the public cannot just walk into a pharmacy and grab it off the shelf without a prescription. All pharmacies are required to have legal prescriptions for each sale of this particular medicine, and proper records for each sale has to be kept by the pharmacies, and these can be audited by authorities at any time.”

Prasad says there might be some other avenues through which the medication could have been exploited, which include pharmaceutical wholesalers.

She adds that this is one area they need the police to look into, because they don’t have any jurisdiction to investigate wholesalers.

Police Chief of Crime ACP Mesake Waqa says over-the-counter medicine is one area the narcotics team is working on.

“That is one area that our narcotics teams are looking at. Control of the lawful drugs, which are the precursors of the illicit drugs. It’s not only the Fiji police force; it’s the pharmaceuticals; everybody’s involved; the stakeholders have to involve themselves.”

Police has confirmed that there are indications that people are manufacturing drugs on a small scale.