From the UK myself. Prescribed it (at my own request) for seizure prophylaxis and I get an additional quantity for response, as a 'rescue pack', for dealing with breakthrough seizures.
I probably strictly speaking, SHOULDN'T have been scripted the stuff, as here it isn't even licensed for antiseizure treatment in the BNF. Let alone on indefinite, automatic repeat. But there you go, I was and it is. I find it works, it works bloody quickly, and at least at the dosages I use, it has caused me no physical dependence at all, even after several years of being on the stuff taking it several times daily. Surprised me alright, since I know that I'd never get away with that on any clinically active dose of any benzodiazepine. But fuck me if I've gotten away with it price-free.
And do NOT drink on this stuff rebelmania!!!! chlormethiazole isn't just any downer when it comes specifically to alcohol. Its also an alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor, so rather than mere potentiation, it both slows the clearance of alcohol from the body, and as a result, causes it (alcohol) to be vastly more potent, so rather than 1+1=3 or 4, 1+1=more like 30. This combination is widely known for being particularly lethal, much more so even than mixing this stuff with other depressants.
Even a small dose with one or two drinks can be enough to push some people over the edge, and if it doesn't kill outright, even a small mixture of the two in the case of both drugs, can be enough to end up making somebody so stinking drunk they'll turn pretty green around the gills, end up flat on their arse and wish themselves never born. Just don't drink on this one, not even a little bit. Don't do it, end of story. If you live to regret it, you'll really regret it.
Ironically, here in the UK, its probably easier to get than benzos, and certainly more so than barbs (not that the latter are really available anymore, save pheno for epilepsy in some cases), because despite its potent effects, and lethally steep dose-response curve, its an antiquated drug really, and most doctors aren't all that familiar with it. They hear 'benzo' and think 'fucking addictive, its the devil incarnated into tablet form', but hear 'chlormethiazole/heminevrin' and think 'just depressant'.
It doesn't seem to have the reputation that makes benzodiazepine type drugs so notorious from the viewpoint of doctors, probably, as I said, because its old, and unlike the barbs, didn't acquire an evil reputation.
