To be annoyed with the Co-op’s painkiller policy

[LunaLoveLemon]

Just popped into the co-op for a takeaway coffee on my way home from the nursery run (awful habit, I know). Thought I’d get stock up on painkillers whilst I was there as it’s cold/flu season. Picked up one packed of ibuprofen, one of paracetamol, and some cold and flu sachets. So two products containing paracetamol, and one of ibuprofen. Not against any sales restrictions AFAIK and certainly not an excessive amount.

The woman at the counter then tells me that I can’t buy three packets of any painkillers. I can’t recall ever having this problem before in any shops? Usually it’s been two of each drug. I’ve just checked the guidelines and two packets of ANY painkiller does appear to be the Best Practice guideline on the .gov website (although not law)! So I suppose I can’t really take issue with it.

But AIBU to think that this is excessively restrictive? I’m a healthcare professional fwiw so do understand the risks wrt overdose. But equally, being able to buy enough painkillers to get you through a few days of illness doesn’t seem unreasonable!

Paracetamol is awful to overdose on. Liver failure is not pretty and horrific death. It might help if they did a disclaimer stating that. The stuff that causes a more painless death is very tightly controlled thankfully. Suicide is usually impulsive especially with overdoses..

They’ve had this policy in most, if not all, shops for years now. I’m surprised that you, being a healthcare professional wasn’t aware of this. I just make sure I’m prepared by keeping a well stocked medicine cabinet. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's part of the reason vets have high suicide rate they have easy access to euthanasia drugs.

If people are finding the measures inconvenient, you can buy more than 32 paracetamol and/or ibuprofen at pharmacies.

Other countries' rules are much more stringent - in France for example you can only buy any amount of paracetamol and ibuprofen in pharmacies.

@RosesAndHellebores I agree and when my dd did overdose (more than once) it was the Naproxen in bigger quantities on an old prescription that nearly made it so much more dangerous.

Please think about getting a locked box for medications if you have teens. There's nothing worse than your child attempting suicide, other than feeling like you could have prevented it as well. Basic suicide prevention should be more widely known.

I'm not sure it does prevent suicides, people just throw themselves in front of trains or off bridges, instead. It is difficult to get them out of the blister packs though. In fact in some cases it's very difficult and you end up with broken tablets!

I thought the rules were that you could buy two packs of each painkiller, but as ever, people goldplate the rules, and lots of shops/sales assistants have decided that it's two packs overall. Although you can get them in larger amounts on prescription.

I just typed and accidentally deleted a post about liver damage and paracetamol even going over the dose can be harmful. .

I find it quite interesting that my GP will prescribe 100 30/500 cocodamol and 100 Naproxen in one go though but you can't buy more than 32 paracetamol.

Well, it is hardly surprising that more / stronger drugs can be prescribed by a doctor than bought over the counter. Part of the doctor's job is checking that the dosage is suitable and you aren't at risk of overdosing. If you were having serious depressive episodes it is likely your doctor would refuse to prescribe so many in one go.

100,000 accidentally overdose on paracetamol each year.

You'd be wrong.

Decades of data proves that restricting access to things you can kill yourself with doesn't just reduce suicides by that method, it reduces suicides overall. When you stopped being able to kill yourself by sticking your head in the oven, people didn't just go and jump off cliffs instead; most of them never killed themselves at all. Similarly, with painkillers, we know that restricting the amount people can buy in one go doesn't just reduce deaths by painkiller overdose, it reduces all suicides. It works.

So on the one hand this policy saves lives; on the other, it might cause a legitimate customer a minor inconvenience. Tough decision.

I find it quite interesting that my GP will prescribe 100 30/500 cocodamol and 100 Naproxen in one go though but you can't buy more than 32 paracetamol.

As a few people have already explained really well on this thread, a lot of suicide prevention is about interrupting the impulse or making it harder for someone to go through with it. Going to a GP, getting a prescription written, then going to pick up the pills is much less likely to be an impulsive action than walking into a supermarket and buying them.

It’s not about how much you ultimately have access to (because as many have pointed out, someone COULD just go around different shops and get as many as they want) but about how quick and easy that access is when someone might be feeling the impulse to do something drastic.

The new guidelines have completely left chronic pain sufferers with nothing. Ruining quality of life for them and those around them.

It's the same everywhere - my first job in a supermarket was 15 years ago and this was their policy then.

I feel your frustration though - I've been refused antihistamines because the store assistant and supervisor didn't understand these are not covered by that policy

Yes, I think it probably prevents more accidental overdoses than deliberate ones.

It's not about stopping someone overdosing it's about them or their family not being able to sue the company if something happens if you want to go to multiple shops that's your decision and 100% on you

a lot of suicide prevention is about interrupting the impulse or making it harder for someone to go through with it

And yet when I did my mental health first aid course we were told that if someone seemed suicidal that we should ask them how they planned to do it. Implying that it's usually well planned.

It's nothing new.
30 years ago I had to make multiple pharmacy visits to take some particular painkillers to ex-pat friends as Spain didn't have them.

People suffering chronic pain should be getting pain relief from their gps

For several years I couldn't get large prescriptions of any drug from the Dr because of a history of mental health issues that had led me to attempt suicide on more than one occasion, and even though it's been around 15 years since my last attempt, the note remains on my records. If you've never been in that situation though, your Dr would have no reason to restrict your prescription and prescribe you a standard 100 a month.

I wouldn't have got a prescription for 100 of anything because they had that information to hand, the people in my local co-op wouldn't know that because they rightly don't have access to medical records, and so the maximum I could get in one impulsive go was around 50, so the two policies combined restricted my access to a larger amount of medication when intrusive suicidal thoughts would happen. 50 could still do damage, but not as much as a couple of hundred.

I realise it's inconvenient for some people, but I'm now extremely grateful it was in place to stop it being so easy.

It absolutely is about reducing overdoses, and it's proven to not only reduce overdoses but reduce all suicides.

Again, I reiterate we have decades of conclusive data on this. It might be unintuitive to think that people might not end their own lives at all if they can't buy all the paracetamol they want at Boots, but it's true.

when I did my mental health first aid course we were told that if someone seemed suicidal that we should ask them how they planned to do it.

Yes, that is a standard question and in my personal experience having a suicide plan isn't actually as unusual as you would think. Having a plan doesn't even get you on the "high risk" list. In that sense, suicide is often planned.

However, in most cases putting the plan into action is impulsive.

I find it very frustrating but understand why its done so don’t kick up a fuss

i did have a little back and forth with a cashier once because I stupidly said ‘can you buy these for me?’ a little too loudly to my friend and the cashier heard, the manager came over and sorted it and i made sure that they knew i had no issue with the cashier

having said that my local town centre has a boots, a superdrug, another chemist, a wilkos, a B&M and two poundlands and i did have to make my way round most of them one winter when we were all ill to stock up

my medicine cabinet is always stocked now

That's a completely different scenario. Suicidal ideation (thinking about suicide) is very common; you assess the seriousness of it in part by checking whether they have progressed to making a plan.

But many actual suicides are impulsive not planned, and getting between that impulse and the means of putting it into action prevents many of those suicides and saves lives.

Do you genuinely believe large companies care more about an individual overdosing or more about not getting sued

@lieselotte I'm not an expert, but I think the point of asking about planning is to assess the intention and likelihood of their attempt. People who have it planned meticulously are more likely to go ahead than say people with suicidal ideation (not wanting to live) but with no plans. It doesn't mean you can't thwart their plans! In fact, part of suicide prevention is working to disrupt the plan, so having a plan of what to do if they feel suicidal, so who to call, having phone numbers at the ready, letting someone else know, doing distraction activities and yes, not having easily OD methods and medications around you.