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European OTC Meds: MEGATHREAD

OTC Medicines in the UK

I'm from Australia and I recently spent 2 weeks in England. In AU, it's a nightmare getting any tablets containing Pseudoephedrine. It's also a hassle buying codeine/ibuprofen or codeine/paracetamol tablets, but not too hard.

I went to a few pharmacies in different places, but ASDA and Boots were the two chains I visited most often, plus one that I can't remember the name of. I managed to walk out each time with Nurofen Plus or Sudafed without any real difficulty at all. Is this common? And because of the relative ease of purchasing Sudafed, is there a large Methamphetamine scene in UK? I was under the impression Amphetamine was more common in UK and Europe, but I may well be wrong.

Was I just lucky, maybe because I'm a foreigner, or is it generally easy to get these and other pharmacist only medicines in England?

One other question, I had a great time, save the 23 hour flight there and back, and would love to go back one day. I've heard that there is an opium tincture which sounds pretty good. Is there anything else that I could get OTC like benzos, stimulants or opiates that are easily obtained without a prescription?
 
Sudafed (the pseudoephedrine variety at least) is fairly easy to obtain but they limit the purchase per individual. Not sure what the limit is, but it'll be one of the biggest box they sell I suppose, whether that's 24 tablets or whatever.

More on UK / European OTC medication here.

Methamphetamine is not very common at all here for various reasons, though it is present and does seem to be gaining gound slowly. More on that here.

Glad you enjoyed yourself too. :)
 
fuck co codamol get paramol, the DHC gets me wasted even with an opiate tolerance :p
 
Gees linctus (opium tincture), J Collis Brownes (morphine) and Kaolin and morphine are three otc morphine containing products, Gees seems to be the most popular but if you have any opiate tollerance you may find them all a bit disappointing. Codeine Linctus (600mg a bottle, no nasties) is available OTC but many places wont stock it/wont serve it to you.

bignbrown, I have a small opiate tollerance and a box of paramol wouldn't touch the sides yet the cheaper option of 2 boxes cocodamol does (with a bit of potentiation).
 
Oh for the days when I had unlimited access to 30/500 cocos and co-dydramols.

To be honest, CWEs have lost their appeal since. Way too much material to filter out in either OTC cocos or Paramol if you want to get a decent dose. I think CWEs are far less hassle and (pretty obviously) safer the less paracetamol you have to deal with, even though good technique (and patience) will get rid of most of it regardless.

Anyone keen on doing CWEs long-term should Google around and find some 30/500s (either coco or co-dydramol), though chances are if you can find them you'll be able to find pure codeine / DHC preparations anyway.
 
Oh for the days when I had unlimited access to 30/500 cocos and co-dydramols.

To be honest, CWEs have lost their appeal since. Way too much material to filter out in either OTC cocos or Paramol if you want to get a decent dose. I think CWEs are far less hassle and (pretty obviously) safer the less paracetamol you have to deal with, even though good technique (and patience) will get rid of most of it regardless.

Anyone keen on doing CWEs long-term should Google around and find some 30/500s (either coco or co-dydramol), though chances are if you can find them you'll be able to find pure codeine / DHC preparations anyway.

My Dad used 2 get boxes of 500 at a time tylex redn white caps they were30/325 ifv i remember when he died my Ma chucked out about 800 i found some t'other day but they were 30/500 cocos like what you chattin about .
Won't do owt 4 me unfourtanley cos of methadone , i still kept em 4 their pain killing properties.
 
Gees linctus (opium tincture), J Collis Brownes (morphine) and Kaolin and morphine are three otc morphine containing products, Gees seems to be the most popular but if you have any opiate tollerance you may find them all a bit disappointing. Codeine Linctus (600mg a bottle, no nasties) is available OTC but many places wont stock it/wont serve it to you.

bignbrown, I have a small opiate tollerance and a box of paramol wouldn't touch the sides yet the cheaper option of 2 boxes cocodamol does (with a bit of potentiation).

guess im one of them people that has the enzymes or whatever it is, dhc gets me really europhicly fucked, even when i have an opiate tolerance.

Paramol are a pain to CWE though.
 
I prefer dhc to codeine but for value for money co-codamol can't be beaten 500+mg for £3 odd
 
pretty sure sudafed no longer contain pseudoephedrine in the UK
 
Aye. The stuff on the shelves is phenylephrine or summat, but the pseudo version is still available.
 
The Sudafed I bought was straight Pseudoephedrine which is great, in AU it's mixed with paracetamol (APAP if you use that term).

I'm interested in trying Dihydrocodeine but I didn't see that available. I've never had that one as the only OTC preparation here is mixed with a ton of sorbitol which I don't find that recreational ;) Gee's Linctus is the one I'd heard of and it sounds good, although I'd probably need a few bottles to feel anything.

Are the major pharmacy chains like Boots more strict when it comes to handing out these products? The big chains were the only ones I went to because they were so easy to find. Is there an easy way to find the smaller pharmacies in a city, or does one need to go out of the cities to find them?

Thanks for the replies!
 
You can just walk into boots and ask for paramol and they will give it to you, that is dhc but you would need to do a cwe. But it's that easy
 
Are the major pharmacy chains like Boots more strict when it comes to handing out these products? The big chains were the only ones I went to because they were so easy to find. Is there an easy way to find the smaller pharmacies in a city, or does one need to go out of the cities to find them?

Thanks for the replies!

The morphine containing products and codeine linctus can be tricky but the codeine/dhc and paracetamol products are never met with more than "have you used this before" "is this for you" "don't take it for more than 3 days"
 
Havn't slept (on MDAI + MPA).. downed a 200ml of gee's linctus an hour or so ago (no opiate tolerance).. feelin pretty good..

That is all.
 
Shameless thread promotion.

Not so much shameless as shameful seeing as it's linked in the very second post.

Do people read threads in their entirety anymore, or is it just a military funeral affair; i.e. The Last Post? ;)

EDIT: Ah, the merge was probably way overdue. Thanks, fellow staff. Although see post #22 if you're wondering whether I'm being a prick for the sake of it...
 
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I'm going to place blame on screen glare from this unexpected british sun.
 
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