Lisa Dollan, an American living in the UK, has revealed her shock over a common medicine that Brits are not permitted to buy in large quantities. While in the U.S., you can buy as many as 1,000 tablets of ibuprofen or aspirin, the UK limits retailers to selling no more than 32 tablets to a single person under the supervision of a pharmacist. According to the UK government, the limit is “a reasonable balance between meeting a customer’s immediate need for pain relief while helping to minimize stockpiling and accidental or impulsive overdose.” Meanwhile, in the United States, it’s common to buy these same drugs in bottles of 50, 200, 300, 500 and even 1,000 capsules without a prescription.
