However, it’s not all roses. Try getting melatonin in the UK. You can buy it almost anywhere in the US. Same for any first generation antihistamines. Or a jar of painkillers - packets are limited to 16 here. Or lidocaine cream. Whenever I go to the US, I have a shopping list to restock our medicine cabinet.
Selling painkillers in 16 pill packets is a problem? It's readily available and very cheap (paracetamol and ibuprofen) generic brands. Never in my life this has been an issue
You can get larger packs of painkillers OTC by speaking with a pharmacist (OTC in the literal sense) or ordering online. For example, Boots sells a 96 count 400mg ibuprofen.
> Whenever I go to the US, I have a shopping list to restock our medicine cabinet
Ha, that's funny, I do something kind of like that when I go to the UK. Though it's just one medicine -- Kwells. Easily available OTC there, not available at all here in the US except as a prescription-only transdermal patch.
Aha! I have heard Americans say they buy Buscopan for IBS when in the Uk as it’s not available at all in the US and it has the same active ingredient! I had no idea it was good for nausea too.
I think Buscopan is different. Apparently hycosine hydrobromide (Kwells, Scopolamine) can cross the blood-brain barrier, while hyoscine butylbromide (Buscopan, a derivative of hycosine hydrobromide) cannot. The effect on the body seems pretty dissimilar.
I think it is generally pretty effective for most people. Science says it is roughly comparable to hycosine.
For me, I find that one Dramamine I (dimenhydrinate) pill is very effective at preventing motion sickness, but it will put me to sleep quite reliably a couple hours later. Two pills and I can play Unreal Tournament 2004 until I'm too tired to sit up. I'd be quite concerned though with 3 or 4 pills about hallucinations -- and from my understanding, the hallucinations you get on dimenhydrinate are not good.
Dramamine II (aka Less Drowsy), which is meclizine, is a little less effective but usually adequate, but still reliably makes me really sleepy the rest of the day.
Kwells (hycosine) is the least effective overall for me, but I can take a little more if I need to, and it does not make me drowsy at all. I would take original dramamine every time based on effectiveness if not for the drowsy part.
That's a very selective example. The US controls TONS of hormones, Melatonin just got grandfathered in. If anything the UK system is more self-consistent than the US, even if I think both systems over-protect hormones with a low risk profile (like Melatonin in the UK).
As a counter-example, up until fairly recently you could buy Co-codamol (codeine, an opioid) in the UK off-the-shelf (i.e. no script). Which is a controlled substance.
See how people can use selective examples to play the "one system good, one system bad" game?
Co-codamol 8/500 (8 mg codeine and 500 mg paracetamol) is still available in the UK without a prescription. As far as I'm aware, though, it's always been OTC (over-the-counter, ie. you have to ask the pharmacist) rather than off the shelf.
The big change recently (mid 2010s) was that the pharmacist now has to verbally warn against driving, whereas previously it was just a prominent warning on the packaging & advice leaflet.
I wasn’t playing a game, but if we must, you can buy jars of naproxen off the shelf in the US as well - prescription only here. And antibiotic ointment, antitussives, antibiotic eye drops, and benzocaine throat spray, just to pick what I see in our cabinet. I only share my own experience though, but I find US pharmacies to be streets ahead in both variety and depth. If other people have other experiences, that is fine and I believe them.
One big benefit, though, is you can legally import or bring in POMs from overseas, a luxury the US does not have.
In terms of access to drugs, the differences between countries is incoherent, not really a "good vs bad" situation. A lot of it has to do with the different ways nations fumble their endless (yet fruitless) attempts to limit abuse and recreational use.
But in terms of cost, the US system is bad. If we as a nation want to invest in drug development, we should do so. Instead we ask grandma and grandpa and the chronically ill to flip the bill. Hard to think of a worse approach.
I save my shopping list for Puerto Vallarta where I'll buy a small amount of benzos instead of battling it out with a US doctor for a prescription. But don't try that in Guadalajara - it's in the same state but the restrictions are far stricter.
And if you're a fan of Benadryl (diphenhydramine), don't expect to buy it in Latin America. It virtually doesn't exist.
