National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy Background Paper

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Key projects include:
• The rescheduling of pseudoephedrine;
• National Clandestine Laboratory Database;
• Community pharmacy sector awareness raising about ‘pseudo-running’:
• The national roll-out of Project STOP;
• National framework for the control of precursor chemicals;
• National framework for the remediation of clandestine laboratory sites; and
• Training for Customs officers and forensic specialists.
The National Chemical Diversion Congress provides a national forum for representatives
from key sectors—police health, forensics, industry and policy—to discuss all matters
relevant to controlling the diversion of precursor chemicals and responding to domestic illicit
drug manufacture.
Many of the consultations made reference to the importance of precursor control and the
various strategies required. For example, it was stated that intelligence was improved
by more dedicated forensic analysis of drugs and a wider application of the Drug Use
Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program. Further, the National Clandestine Laboratory
Database was viewed as a good first step, provided the information obtained was timely
and useful. The written submission from NDARC noted that:
Concurrent sustained efforts to control domestic diversion of precursor chemicals and
manufacture is also needed, because of the high levels of domestic production that
occur within Australia.
Legislative responses
Typically, the chemicals sought after to produce ATS are pseudoephedrine and ephedrine
(Schloenhardt, 2007), which have a number of legitimate uses, and are commonly available
from pharmacies and supermarkets. In Australia, such precursor chemicals are regulated by
drug laws in both state and federal jurisdictions (Schloenhardt, 2007). The submission from
NDARC commented that:
Improved capacity to regulate precursor chemicals and control ATS supply in the Asia
Pacific region is needed to reduce the supply of high purity methamphetamine in Australia.
In 1998, the Model Criminal Code Committee of the Standing Committee of Attorney-
Generals published its report on model serious drug offences. The report arose from
concerns that within a mobile society like Australia, organised crime involving illicit drugs
transcends state and national boundaries and people may be treated differently in different
jurisdictions. Therefore:
there is a persuasive case for uniformity in the definition of serious offences such
as drug trafficking (p.ii).