• Pat12@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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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      1 year 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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        1 year 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

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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      1 year 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.