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This is why you could only buy OTC codeine at pharmacies after you talked to the pharmacist about your condition and they checked and recorded your details in a database to see if you had been buying excessive amounts of OTC codeine.

We are moving from a system where we recorded who was buying codeine and making sure they were not needing help, to a system where there are no controls. The GPs in Australia lack any database on who has been prescribed codeine so it is now possible to doctor-shop around and abuse the system where previously it was regulated. About the only “winners” out of this change are the GP’s as they will now get more business from people like me.



Makes total sense. In the United States, despite their training pharmacists are mostly considered to be pill monkeys rather than meaningful medical professionals--what you get instead is an emoji shrug as the their-definition-of-freedom-lovers (the GP is a good example) froth out at the idea that their medical data should be available to medical professionals, leaving it an ongoing pain in the rear to try to get one pharmacy chain to talk to another (or to an independent pharmacist).

I sometimes forget that other countries have systems that actually work because the incidence of people trying to destroy societal systems is generally less; in that context what you describe certainly seems like an own goal to me.

Thanks!




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