Speaking for the UK you can buy ibuprofen, paracetamol (acetaminophen) and aspirin off the shelf in any shop.

You're limited to 2 packs of 16 tablets each (for a total of 32 tablets) per transaction, in an effort to reduce the incidence of spontaneous suicide attempts.

You don't need a prescription for it in Germany (up to 400 mg AFAIK), but it may only be sold in pharmacies.

Ibuprofen, paracetamol and acetylsalicylic acid are generally available almost as easily in Europe as in the US.

EU pharmacists want your aspirin to come with megadose vitamin C ... which studies bear out as safer for stomach lining.

In Germany you can buy it at a pharmacy, you generally can't obtain medicine at a normal store.

Direct consumer advertisement of drugs is also illegal in Germany. (I think there's only 3 or 4 countries on the planet where this isn't the case)

On the other hand, at least in the cities there is a ton of pharmacies - sometimes even across the street form one another, and easily every few hundred meters along major routes. There are way too many. When I walk through downtown Nuremberg I walk past several of them, right on the main pedestrian-only street of the city. And they are all allowed to advertise in their shop windows. So that's some prime advertising space, right in the hard of the city. On my way to downtown, a twelve minute walk, I walk past four pharmacies if I take the route along the street (vs. the lake route, which is a park).

Also, they are allowed to advertise for things like cold medicine, when I still had a TV (log time ago, admittedly) I remember seeing lots and lots of such ads: "WICK MediNait cold medicinefor the night", list of ingredients: https://www.aponet.de/wissen/arzneimitteldatenbank/suchergeb... (active ingredients Paracetamol, doxylamine hydrogen succinate, ephedrine hemisulfate, Dextromethorphan hydrobromide-1-water)

> Direct consumer advertisement of drugs is also illegal in Germany.

Only for prescription drugs ("verschreibungspflichtig"), so no "ask your doctor if XYZ is right for you" bullshit.

Non-prescription drugs ("apothekenpflichtig") are heavily advertised in pharmacies, sometimes on billboards, and on TV. Most TV ads for drugs are running on ARD and ZDF [1] since that's what old people watch.

[1] Though only between 18:00 and 20:00, which is when the public broadcasters are allowed to air ads.

In the UK, ibuprofen, aspirin and paracetamol are sold freely everywhere (but only in small packs). Painkillers containing codeine are available over the counter, after talking to a pharmacist. Anything stronger requires a prescription.

The 500/5 cocodamols will cause liver damage before any codeine kicks in.

What is interesting is that if you really interesting is that a certain large pharmacy does a 200/12 ibuprofen + codeine combo.

I once had a prolapsed lower disc (from sport) and neck spasm (from stupidity) at the same time. Whilst I couldn't take naproxen (lots of reflux even with omeprazole), that and 500/15 cocodes with diazepam was the only way to get to sleep.

In the UK, you can buy a pack of 16 generic Ibuprofen tablets at the supermarket for as little as £0.25 ($0.35, €0.28). Similarly, Aspirin can be bought for as little £0.45 for a pack of 16 tablets.

You can't buy painkillers in stores in France but we have pharmacies everywhere. It's probably the same in most European countries.

In Ireland, ibuprofen and aspirin are available OTC in pharmacies, but only paracetamol is available in supermarkets.