The bill moves pseudoephedrine from a class B drug to a class C2 drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act, allowing cold and flu products containing it to be sold over the counter in pharmacies without a prescription.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (first reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
This bill makes it legal again to sell cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that clears blocked noses and sinuses. Pseudoephedrine can be used as an ingredient to make the illegal drug methamphetamine, and for that reason its sale was tightly restricted and effectively removed from pharmacy shelves in 2011. The bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to take pseudoephedrine (and related compounds) off the controlled-drug schedules, allowing the medicines regulator to reclassify products so they can be sold as pharmacy or pharmacist-only medicines - that is, over the counter, with a pharmacist's oversight rather than a doctor's prescription. The practical effect is that people with colds and congestion can once again buy the more effective decongestants that had been unavailable in New Zealand, subject to any sale limits and record-keeping the regulator sets.
Restoring access to pseudoephedrine was an ACT Party policy taken into the National-ACT coalition agreement. Supporters argue the ban left New Zealanders with weaker alternatives such as phenylephrine, which studies suggest is largely ineffective; they note that most methamphetamine is now imported in bulk by organised crime rather than "cooked" from cold tablets, so the restriction imposed real inconvenience for little benefit to drug control. Opponents, including some police and addiction specialists, worry that easier access could revive small-scale domestic meth manufacture and give criminals a local supply of precursor chemicals. They question whether pharmacy safeguards will be enough to prevent bulk buying and diversion, and argue the harms of methamphetamine justify keeping tighter controls on the ingredients used to make it.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.