Image description: A bottle of Ibuprofen containing 1000 tablets.
(Originally published earlier today on mastodon.social)
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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Nah, I’ve traveled through a shitload of countries and know a pharmacy from a market. It’s just a bit more inconvenient to get what we have over the counter here.
OK but what you said is just patently untrue? Ibuprofen does not require a prescription, but you do have to get it from a chemist, yknow, over the counter. Imodium is available off the supermarket shelf.
I’m generalising of course but I’m generalising from Ireland which is one of the more controlled places in Europe. In others medicine is even less controlled.
I think I prefer that to living somewhere where 50% of ads are “ask your doctor for Valium today!”
France and Germany required a pharmacist for ibuprofen, and France banned imodium/pepto. I’ve been through most of western Europe and it’s just better to not forget the most basic of things we carry at gas stations…including a gun. Jk…ish.
Do you understand that “required a pharmacist” is not “required a prescription”? When people say “over the counter”, do you know what counter they’re talking about?
Based on this thread from that other site, imodium is also available over the counter in France:
old.reddit.com/r/…/de_gasimodium/
So again the theme seems to be Yanks not knowing what OTC means because the idea of involving a trained medical person in a purchase presumably terrifies them.
I’ve been to every country in Western Europe (except Andorra), extensively, and I’ve never once bothered to pack medicine except when traveling by ferry.