• FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    ibuprofen is not a prescription medicine, it’s over the counter. you can get 2 packs x 500 in costco in the US. (source)

    I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it’s prescription in the US?

    rubbing alcohol (when i was there at least) was not readily available, i think the govt regulated it because they didn’t want people to get drunk or something.

    I’d need to see a source, this seems like wild speculation. Seems pretty unlikely that they banned it and lifted the ban without this being front and centre when looking it up. Couldn’t it have been the whole COVID craze which just meant it was sold out?

    • Pat12@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it’s prescription in the US?

      the question is asking what’s something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can’t get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens’t make sense to me

      it wasn’t COVID, this was before COVID

      • Piers@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s because people try to kill themselves by taking lots of ibuprofen and it’s both a bad way to go and a bad way to survive. Making it harder to access large amounts has been shown to reduce the amount of suicide attempts (as often actual attempts are somewhat impulsive.)

        • Pat12@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          well sure, lots of people commit suicide by hanging themself but that doesn’t stop us planting trees or building bridges, i consider the uk way to be overly cautious, for the majority of people ibuprofen is not a problem and i think it’s frustrating to just get little amounts

          • Piers@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I do t understand why you’d need easy access to buy 500 at a time of something you shouldn’t take more than 8 a day or for more than three days at a time without consulting a Dr and now I just realised what this is about…

            In the UK we just see the Dr if we’re in pain for more than three days because our system isn’t evil.

            • Pat12@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              ? because you always need ibuprofen for something, it’s cheaper to buy in bulk, and it’s more conveneint to have it laying around already than having to go and get some when you need it already

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        the question is asking what’s something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can’t get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens’t make sense to me

        There’s multiple reasons:

        • Medicine goes bad after some time, and most people don’t store it properly. This can lead to less or more effective doses than expected, which is obviously really bad.

        • Ibuprofen is pretty bad for you if you take it with any kind of regularity.

        • It’s way easier to fuck yourself up permanently with larger doses. We know that e.g. having a gun around increases the likelihood of successful suicide dramatically. Having a large amount of pills lying around is similarly dangerous, especially considering how bad even proper usage would be.

        But is anything stopping you from getting multiple smaller packs?

        it wasn’t COVID, this was before COVID

        As I said, I’d need to see some kind of source.