Ask Lemmy

parent

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

Hm, I guess I can see some of that?

tv license

That is indeed strange. Here it's not a license, just a tax that's not really a tax.

getting a dog license

Only in Northern Ireland.

not selling ibuprofen in large quantities (regulation)

That's not a government license, it's a prescription. Don't most countries have something similar, where you can't just buy any medicine you want?

not selling rubbing alcohol (regulation)

I can go on Amazon.co.uk right now and buy some. Could you link the regulation preventing sales?

the restriction on kitchen knives

You mean not being allowed to carry them around in public for no reason? Or not selling them to people under 18?

butter knives being considered an "offensive weapon"

Okay, but what does that have to do with getting government permission?

Only one of those things is kind of a "government permission". Everything else is not regulation for which you need government permission.

hideshow 4 child comments

parent

[–] TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Think you need a dog license in Germany too iirc. To be fair, they have the best behaved dogs I’ve met while traveling as a result though.

parent

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

It depends on the state. There is no general "dog license", but some states require you to take a test in order to own more dangerous breeds.

parent

[–] Pat12@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

ibuprofen is not a prescription medicine, it's over the counter. you can get 2 packs x 500 in costco in the US. (source)

rubbing alcohol (when i was there at least) was not readily available, i think the govt regulated it because they didn't want people to get drunk or something.

parent

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

ibuprofen is not a prescription medicine, it's over the counter. you can get 2 packs x 500 in costco in the US. (source)

I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it's prescription in the US?

rubbing alcohol (when i was there at least) was not readily available, i think the govt regulated it because they didn't want people to get drunk or something.

I'd need to see a source, this seems like wild speculation. Seems pretty unlikely that they banned it and lifted the ban without this being front and centre when looking it up. Couldn't it have been the whole COVID craze which just meant it was sold out?

parent

[–] Pat12@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I thought we were talking about the UK? Why does it matter whether it’s prescription in the US?

the question is asking what's something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can't get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens't make sense to me

it wasn't COVID, this was before COVID

hideshow 4 child comments

parent

[–] Piers@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

It's because people try to kill themselves by taking lots of ibuprofen and it's both a bad way to go and a bad way to survive. Making it harder to access large amounts has been shown to reduce the amount of suicide attempts (as often actual attempts are somewhat impulsive.)

parent

[–] Pat12@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

well sure, lots of people commit suicide by hanging themself but that doesn't stop us planting trees or building bridges, i consider the uk way to be overly cautious, for the majority of people ibuprofen is not a problem and i think it's frustrating to just get little amounts

parent

[–] Piers@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

I do t understand why you'd need easy access to buy 500 at a time of something you shouldn't take more than 8 a day or for more than three days at a time without consulting a Dr and now I just realised what this is about...

In the UK we just see the Dr if we're in pain for more than three days because our system isn't evil.

parent

[–] Pat12@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago

? because you always need ibuprofen for something, it's cheaper to buy in bulk, and it's more conveneint to have it laying around already than having to go and get some when you need it already

parent

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago

the question is asking what's something that americans/europeans do that makes no sense to you. the fact that i can't get a big pack of ibuprofen like i can in the US doens't make sense to me

There's multiple reasons:

Medicine goes bad after some time, and most people don't store it properly. This can lead to less or more effective doses than expected, which is obviously really bad.
Ibuprofen is pretty bad for you if you take it with any kind of regularity.
It's way easier to fuck yourself up permanently with larger doses. We know that e.g. having a gun around increases the likelihood of successful suicide dramatically. Having a large amount of pills lying around is similarly dangerous, especially considering how bad even proper usage would be.

But is anything stopping you from getting multiple smaller packs?

it wasn't COVID, this was before COVID

As I said, I'd need to see some kind of source.