No laughing matter

OTOH it is also why it can be hard to find a plumber, electrician, builder or chimney sweep.

I can also see that, if you are not good with the language, pharmacies can be a bit intimidating.

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I was wondering,are there the numbers of drug overdoses (self harm ) we get in the uk because on the difficulty in getting tablets

It is like most tablets, If you are that bothered about the cost you can buy ibuprofen online by the 600’s, I use them all the time due to the nerve damage in my hands due to the lack of fingers and they are only 3 cents each in bulk.

Once in the pharmacy you can buy larger amounts.
It is a ridiculous rule in UK that you can only buy a small of tablets at a supermarket or other shop when anyone who really wants to end their life can purchase these tablets and hoard them.
People even hoard prescription drugs if they want to end their life and, meantime, other folks are inconvenienced.

In my experience, attempted suicide by taking an excess of tablets is often a cry for help rather than a serious attempt at ending one’s life and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Those with a serious intent are often more successful sadly.

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Yes it’s a great pity that some people are inconvenienced because some people are so desperate they want to end their lives, it’s so thoughtless of them

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I think Eddie that those that are determined to end their lives can use the Internet. Sadly there are sites that tell you the cocktail to take and there are sites that supply same.

That’s what I would have suspected

Just to be clear - there are pluses and minuses. For example, it’s definitely harder to set up most kinds of enterprise in France. This does, I’m sure, sometimes inhibit entrepreneurialism; on the other hand it probably means that those that do set up are the more committed or otherwise stronger entrepreneurs - and probably means a more stable business environment generally.

Many years ago I worked with a group of UK truckers that tried to set up a co-operative association - bit like a trade union really, though they were all actually businesses themselves. We visited Unicooptrans in Avignon to see how they did it. The French were amazed at what was happening in the UK - anybody (with the right driving license) could buy a unit and set up as a trucker, and lots did with their redundancy pay (it was in the aftermath of lots of closures) - but they knew nothing really about the business. They undercharged and became unsustainable - but not before they had undercut some of the good, established truckers, who also went out of business. The co-operative association was really an attempt to emulate the French way of thinking (to set up you need relevant qualifications, business skills, membership of professional bodies, etc, etc).

No Eddie.
This is not denegrating those who want to or think they want to take their lives.
It is that there are plenty of options open to them, including the hoarding of tablets.
It became so stupid that if I wanted paracetemol, I could put my purchase through the till and then Jim could make a separate purchase and put it in the same basket.

@Jane_Williamson is quite right. On a previous visit to UK OH wanted to purchase some antihistamine tabs in Tesco but was told that there was a restriction on the number of packs she could buy at the same time. There were 4 of us at the counter, OH, me and our UK friends (with whom we were staying) and as we were all over the age of 18, the server agreed 4 x the limit. Crazy :crazy_face:
Now gets them on prescription from our MT at the pharmacie.

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Me too. I have CoDoliprane and Loratadine on prescription plus a load of others.
There is no real point to a rule when it can be so easily be manipulated.
To me it points to the intellectual dumbing down of the population by government.

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Talking about entrepreneurs, my wife could set up her own pharmacy with all the pills she has amassed over the years. She can’t bring herself to throw them away, or send them back to the pharmacy for some reason. She has had depression off and on over the years and has a standing prescription. I asked her this morning, as I was going for my own prescription if she wanted the Citalopram as well as the Fortimel drinks she has. She replied no because ‘I don’t take any pills except the occasional Dolipram for a headache’. I did a search and she has no less than 4 unused packets of them, there may be more squirelled away, so I told the pharmacist, ‘just the Fortimel, not the Citalopram’. It takes ages to gather a month’s supply of the drinks, in a great big heavy carton, so I said I would come back this afternoon for them.

Back home I unpacked the box to get the prescription and, there at the bottom, another packet of Citalopram. :astonished: :roll_eyes:

There is still a problem with paracetamol abuse because there’s nothing to stop a person visiting every pharmacy in town and buying a packet OTC. The limit is currently (Covid restrictions) supposed to be one box of 500mg or 1g per sale for people without symptoms, otherwise 2 boxes with symptoms, unless prescription says different.

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Apparently the change in the UK did have a significant effect in reducing fatal overdoses. And in France paracetamol is the most common drug used in suicide attempts…

Suicide attempts are often spontaneous so trudging round a town to collect the wherewithal can be an effective brake…

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