[yardie]

I'm still trying to convince my wife, who's French, they are the same thing. She's convinced the medicines in France are stronger.

[em10fan]

My girlfriend is French, and they sort of are I suppose.

Their over the counter paracetamol are usually 1000mg per tablet whereas ours are limited to 500mg per tablet.

In an average dose, thy only take one, whereas we take two.

[dreamcompiler]

Yikes. Twice as easy to destroy your liver by accident with 1000mg tablets.

[LeoPanthera]

I know that in the UK painkillers that contain codeine as an additive are common, which makes them stronger. I don’t believe it’s possible to get it in the USA.

To make up for it, it’s very difficult to buy painkillers in the UK in quantities of more than about 8, while Costco sells jars of literally hundreds of tablets.

[watersb]

US person here: I am familiar with codeine-(acetaminophen) mix everyone calls "Tylenol-3". It requires a prescription.

[DanBC]

In the UK you can buy 16 tablets of paracetamol off the shelf. You can buy 32 tablets over the counter. You can have a discussion with a pharmacist if you want to buy more - up to about 100.

This is a useful suicide prevention measure and we've seen deaths by suicide from paracetamol reducing a bit as a result.

[kurthr]

You are correct, any acetaminophen with codeine would require a prescription. Careful what you carry in your luggage. :^\