There are concerns pharmacists could have to deal with more burglaries, as the new government plans to restore over-the-counter sales of Pseudoephedrine.
The medication is a nasal decongestant and it comes in a tablet and used to be in every packet of cold and flu medicine that you bought over the counter.
However, commonly used as a cold and flu medication, the drug was banned for over-the-counter sales in 2011 and has been prescription-only due to its use in the manufacturing of Methamphetamine.
But ACT has pledged to restore over-the-counter sales claiming Kiwis do not have access to an alternative medication that works well for them.
Westmere Pharmacist Samantha Tibshraeny told AM on Tuesday morning businesses really can't afford to go back to the times when burglaries were common.
"There is potential for abuse with it, people can use it to make methamphetamine. People can have addiction problems to the Pseudoephedrine itself, so there are addiction problems relating to Pseudoephedrine and that's what we really have to weigh up when we're having this conversation," she said.
"Not to say there isn't a place for it and possibly a lot of people will benefit from having a really effective decongestant for when they've got a cold... [but] we can't go back to the times when we were having pharmacies held up and pharmacies robbed for the Pseudoephedrine. We really can't go back to those times."
She told AM the risks of selling it need to be weighed up against what the medication provides.
"I think what we need to keep in mind about this whole conversation is what we're dealing with are colds and flus," she said.
"We're not talking about some life-saving medication. We're talking about something that makes you feel a bit bitter when you've got a cold and we really have to weigh up the benefits we get from it compared to the risks that we all know are associated with Pseudoephedrine."
The drug has been a prescription-only medication since 2011 but before that, Tibshraeny said burglaries were "widespread" when the medication was sold over-the-counter.
She told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green once the medicine came off the shelves the problem "disappeared instantly".
However, ACT Leader David Seymour, who was the main man pushing for this policy, told AM, following Tibshraeny's interview, he doubts pharmacies would be targeted like they were in the past.
"In terms of robbery, that did happen last time. I suspect it's much less likely this time because today, as we've seen, unfortunately, there's more P than ever," he said.
"The people who make and sell this stuff have found faster, cheaper, bigger and better, I guess ways to get it than taking a few pills out of a pharmacy and melting them down to make P, so I don't think that's going to be the same issue that it was."
Seymour told AM it wouldn't be fair for people to miss out on something that can help them, out of fear of a few people doing something illegal.
"I also think it's really important that we don't get stuck in this loop of people can't do something legal because we're worried about illegal activity," he said.
"I remember, I think it was Stuart Nash, one of the former Labour ministers, who said, 'The answer for ram raids and robberies is for dairies not to sell cigarettes'. Whatever you may think of cigarettes, I think it's a sad day when we say that you're not allowed to run a legal business according to the law because other people don't follow the law. The answer there is to enforce the law."
But Tibshraeny feels the risks outweigh the demand saying there is "minimal public demand" for the drug.
But Seymour disagreed telling AM "person after person" has told him that when they have a terrible cold or flu they just want to go back to the days when they "could get the good stuff".
"The cough and cold medicine that's been available has been shown to be vastly less effective than Pseudoephedrine based medications," he said.
"So that's a big victory for people going into the next flu season and we shouldn't forget the benefits."
Seymour also stressed removing the restriction doesn't mean every pharmacy has to sell Pseudoephedrine.
But Tibshraeny said this would put pharmacies in an awkward position where they would have to weigh up the risks of burglaries and robberies against the amount gained commercially.
"From a commercial point of view, we are still businesses that operate and it would be quite difficult to explain this to your loyal customer base that the pharmacy down the road has it when we don't," she said.
"So it would become quite a tricky commercial decision. I think that every pharmacy would have to make their own mind up about that."
Watch the full interview with Samantha Tibshraeny in the video above.
