Controlled Substances

Just prior to our recent Beijing trip, I ran an errand at our local pharmacy. The friends we would stay with in China needed ibuprofen, so we volunteered to restock their supply. A big bottle of 200 mg tablets was what I sought. Easy enough, right? Wrong.

I went to the pharmacy by my house and spent about 20 minutes covering every inch of the store. No bottles of ibuprofen to be found. In fact, the only thing resembling any sort of drug were the vitamins, cough drops, and 5 types of the same brand of acetaminophen. (Apparently Panadol has the "aches and pains medicine" monopoly here.)

I decided to approach the pharmacy counter hoping they wouldn't be annoyed with such a simple request. "Ibuprofen?" I asked. The counter attendant turned to the locked glass cabinet behind him, opened it, and began to search. He finally found a box of "Nuprofen," Singapore's ibuprofen brand. "But I can't sell this to you" he said. "The pharmacist is not on duty." Huh? It wasn't like I was buying morphine or requesting syringes. But rules are rules, so I stopped by another pharmacy close to my Chinese school. I was in luck! The pharmacist was in.

I requested the ibuprofen, the pharmacist searched in the locked cabinet behind her, and she handed me the pills. Then the spiel began... she described what the pills were used for, how long my supply would last (24 pills in each box, a two-day supply), and the standard dosage (2 200 mg pills). It was like listening to someone describe how to use a telephone or tie my shoe. I guess Singaporeans are not a pill popping population like Americans are.