WTF – went to the pharmacists in Asda to get my wife some drugs for her hideous cold – I asked for a bottle of Night Nurse and some Lemsip Max.

And yes, that’s right, they wouldn’t serve me them both, asking what I needed them both for.

I explained that the Night Nurse is for when she goes to bed to help her sleep and the Lemsip is for during the day when she couldn’t use Night Nurse as it would send her to sleep.

But no, she wouldn’t supply them both. How utterly absurd.

So I carried on into the shop to do the other shopping I needed and picked up the same sized packet of Lemsip Max (10) from the shelf and bought them.

Moan over.

I buy 6 packs of ibuprofen and 6 packs of nurofen at once, by putting 3 spearators between them and paying for them separatly. Moronic restriction.

Ha! thats brilliant dbcooper! Shirley that doesn’t work, or is it just that moronic a process?

Seems stupid. The pharmacist has the discretion to sell you more than the restricted amount.

Putting a separator in between your purchases and paying separately circumvents the till restrictions, but puts the checkout person in an awkward position as they are strictly speaking breaking the law by selling to the same person. Agree it’s a moronic law though.

It does seem a bit ott, but paracetamol poisoning is so nasty, anything that makes you think a bit about what you are buying / using has got to be a good thing.

I used to go into the local chemist and pick up my box of 500 cocodamol, they’d only sell me 32 paracetemol though (I was doing a 1/1 split of cocodamol and paracetemol)

Well I guess it’s because of idiots like me! Couple of months back I was taking max dose of paracetamol for backache, and developed a cold too. Asked chemist for some Lemsip and she asked if I was taking any paracetamol 😯

I swear I didn’t know Lemsip was basically paracetamol until that moment, so I’m very glad she asked 😳

Seems stupid. The pharmacist has the discretion to sell you more than the restricted amount.

’tis true…

Moronic restriction.

Maybe not – I don’t have the paper to hand, but all the evidence suggests that since the restriction came into force, there has been a reduction in paracetamol ODs/deaths.

Yes, it can be frustrating being limited on the number, but there is a background reason.

DrP

I know two people who’ve accidentally overdosed on paracetemol and ended up in hospital after not realising that it was in the likes of Lemsip and Nightnurse*. One is still suffering from the consequences 7 years later. On that grounds I’d say there’s reasonable cause for a restriction.

*obviously they’re daft for not noticing but that wouldn’t have been much help when they were in A&E.

Paracetemol is a horrid horrid way to die though when you get too much of it. I have a former tenant who just got away with it when he (deliberately) overdosed, but got discovered when he was a funny colour and shaking. Lovely bloke, but he’s hoping for a liver transplant sometime soon.

That said, I walked away ranting from a full trolley of shopping when refused 2 packs of paracetemol and two of ibuprofen one night having put my back out lifting my dad who had collapsed with mrsa and getting him to A&E. I needed a hug and a cup of tea more than the meds though. Just typing that has made me need another one.

If you get the quack to prescribe, it’s 240 Paracetamol for the £8 fee. I.e. more per tab than generic… I understand that’s the most they can do at a time.

I don’t even mind the paracetamol restriction, but when I was told at the pharmacy that I couldn’t buy paracetamol at the same time as picking up a prescription for dihydrocodeine as they both contained paracetamol I did get the hump a bit. (they don’t BTW)

They exist for a reason not just to make it a bit inconvenient for you when you have the sniffles.

In the UK Paracetamol is the most common agent of intentional self harm. Between 2000-2008 there were 90-155 deaths from paracetamol poisoning every year. In addition, there are deaths resulting from paracetamol compounds. It is the most common cause of acute liver failure (ALF).

To reduce the incidence of paracetamol overdose, legislation was passed in the UK in 1998 to limit the number of tablets that could be bought in one purchase: 16 tablets at present (up to 32 tablets in pharmacies). Furthermore, paracetamol was supplied in blister packs making obtaining the actual tablets take longer.

Limiting pack size has reduced sizes of overdoses and numbers of deaths and liver transplantations in England and Wales, but not Scotland, although some authors have disputed the decline.

Paracetamol overdose may occur intentionally and accidentally – the latter due to the high number of combination products available over-the-counter. There are also frequent cases of accidental poisoning in children.

Source

I buy 6 packs of ibuprofen and 6 packs of nurofen at once, by putting 3 spearators between them and paying for them separatly. Moronic restriction.

You shouldnt be able to do that I believe. It should be obvious to the check out person what you are doing and they should refuse to sell the additional ones.

In a way it is silly as someone who really wants to do harm will just go to different stores any buy it but it does serve well to inform people that don’t realise there is paracetamol in a lot of medication and prevent them from unintentional harm.

In a way it is silly as someone who really wants to do harm will just go to different stores any buy it

I suppose the hope is that they think better of it on the way between Boots and Superdrug.

I take it none of you watched Breaking Bad then ?

Sadly they can’t change the law to only allow middle-class people who aren’t going to open a P lab, buy more than two packets at a time.

know two people who’ve accidentally overdosed on paracetemol and ended up in hospital after not realising that it was in the likes of Lemsip and Nightnurse*.

Bloody hell, how much did they take?? (I’m reading overdose as something more than double/triple the recommended dose, which would be easy enough..)

Seems stupid. The pharmacist has the discretion to sell you more than the restricted amount.
’tis true…

So she thought I was either stupid or trying to kill myself then….

I suppose the hope is that they think better of it on the way between Boots and Superdrug.

Ive never been in that situation to be able to understand, but apparently it does stop over doses.

As to OP. Now you look a bit silly, but more informed, why not fill your wifes boots, and see how she gets on….

So she thought I was either stupid or trying to kill myself then…

Or it wasn’t the Pharmacist.

Bloody hell, how much did they take?? (I’m reading overdose as something more than double/triple the recommended dose, which would be easy enough..)

I don’t know TBH. I lived with one at the time and she was one of those folk who load themselves up with every drug under the sun at the first sign of a sniffle. She genuinely had no idea that she was taking three or four medications with paracetemol in over the course of a day on top of taking tablets.

The other girl I was less close to but I understand that she did something similar – though I know that some of our friends think she might have been more aware of what she was doing than she claims.

I tried to get headache tablets when I was in the amazon.
The pharmacist said they couldn’t get any as the parrots eat em all.

I swear I didn’t know Lemsip was basically paracetamol until that moment, so I’m very glad she asked

As an aside, it’s always worth checking what’s in big-name drugs. Apart from avoiding contraindications, it will often save you a good deal of money. The supermarket own-brand Lemsip-a-likes usually contain the same active ingredients (and sometimes more) than the big brands making bold marketing claims. A pack of Nurofen, as a random example, will set you back North of two quid; but it’s just Ibuprofen, the exact same drug in the same dosage only without a photo of a woman with a headache on the box will cost you 30p.

In a way it is silly as someone who really wants to do harm will just go to different stores any buy it

I suppose the hope is that they think better of it on the way between Boots and Superdrug.

This is it.

It’s intention is to stop the spur of the moment attempts.
If someone is ‘really committed to suicide’ they will quietly plan it out (hence why it’s difficult to stop in some cases). The restriction stops the so-called ‘mood swing suicides’ that people begin to regret minutes after the thought.
Hence, wandering from shop to shop suddenly becomes an eye opener.

However…. I TOO get annoyed I can’t buy a pack of paracetamol AND a jar of calpol!!

DrP

Seems stupid. The pharmacist has the discretion to sell you more than the restricted amount.

Didn’t know that and I would have used it the other day when refused trying to buy paracetamol and ibuprofen. Pharmacist wouldn’t budge, even when I offered my Paramedic registration card and reasoning behind buying both. 20 yard trip to the Spar and sorted.

Agree with danger as pointed out above though. I’ve actually had clueless parents giggling at their ‘silly’ daughter who took 100 paracetamol + over 10 hours before I got there. Not a good prognosis !

First hugs for midlife 🙂

Next, hels breaking bad is meth amphetamine, for which they started with sudofed, as it contains a very similar amphetamine. The paracetamol in sudofed would have been one of the things they removed, before altering the purified amphetamine.

Isn’t it paracetamol that it’s possible to add the antidote for overdose caused problems directly to the tablet, without affecting its pain killing ability? That, and a small cost increase, would seem a good option. Hell if the cost was significant pharmacies could stock both types… 500 tablet jars of convenient costly but safe, and 16 tablet blister packs of cheap but ‘dangerous’

Legislation for the hard of thinking. Modern Britain.

boblo – Member

If you get the quack to prescribe, it’s 240 Paracetamol for the £8 fee.

Unless you live in civilisation

I think prescriptions are free in Scotland too 🙂

Frustrating, but a reasonably pragmatic balance of benefit and risk. ask a pharmacist if you need to buy more. Or pay cash and scan them through the self-service machines on separate transactions.

~200 deaths/year to 2013, but down by half from 1993-97. It may be inconvenient, but restriction does work.

Still an amazing drug, that would never be developed now. And Mrs TiRed is allergic to it – a dose titration confirmed it.

Legislation for the hard of thinking. Modern Britain.

No its for the depressed

One of hte biggest causes of Paracetemol overdose is dental pain. a clinical overdose is concidered above 75mg per kg. so if you weigh 75kg then 10 tablets is enough to be concidered a clinical overdose. Thats why you can only buy 2 packs. Its very easy to hurt yourself. Given that one pack is enough to last you two days of full doses, if after 4 days of full dose analgesia, you should probably be looking at the cause of the pain rather than just treating it and addressing this with your GP (but thats another story).

Legislation for the hard of thinking. Modern Britain.

It’s legislation which saves the lives of some extremely vulnerable people.

And at worst it’s mildly inconvenient for some others, occasionally.

You would need to be “hard of thinking” not to be able to see that.
Or to be too self centred to care.

Modern Britain 🙄

a jar of calpol!!

Try buying a bottle of 6+ Calpol from a pharmacy when you have a <6 child with you. Yet you can get it off the shelf in the supermarkets.

Legislation for the hard of thinking. Modern Britain.

Let’s not protect the vulnerable. Old Britain.

Or pay cash and scan them through the self-service machines on separate transactions.

Good luck with that. Soon as you scan them it’ll stop the transaction so they can check your age.

Bloody hell, how much did they take?? (I’m reading overdose as something more than double/triple the recommended dose, which would be easy enough..)

[professional hat] It is possible to do yourself severe damage or worse by taking too much in less alarming quantities over a long time rather than chomping down dozens in one go. This would be known as a staggered overdose and can occur when people don’t realise the paracetemol content of otc remedies and take a few days of lemsip plus paracetemol plus whatever else, or are just burning the candle at both ends and getting more and more fed up of the pain and overlapping doses etc. A mate of mine was a charge nurse in a very large A&E many years ago and lost (yes i mean she actually died, in a painful and slow way) a student nurse to exactly that.

Iirc one reason paracetemol is available in france only in dissolvable sachets or fizzing (alka seltzer/nuun type) tablets is that it too was found to significantly reduce the incidence of deliberate poisining by overdose, because you have to drink so much water with it to take a big ‘all in one’ overdose.

I wonder if paracetemol would be licenced if it had never existed but was invented tomorrow. [\professional hat]

Try buying a bottle of 6+ Calpol from a pharmacy when you have a <6 child with you. Yet you can get it off the shelf in the supermarkets.

Try buying Calpol equivalent in a German pharmacy when your kid has just developed an ear infection on 1st day of a road trip holiday! They wanted age and weight plus almost 10 minutes explaining the excessively complicated dose instructions multiple times for something we’d pick off the supermarket shelf in UK. Was also foul tasting compared to UK brands.

Now go very well stocked with that sort of thing.

Exactly Julian Wilson that’s another reason they have the procedures in place.

Northwind – Member
boblo – Member
If you get the quack to prescribe, it’s 240 Paracetamol for the £8 fee.

Unless you live in civilisation

Does not understand…