[benj111]

I suspect this is location specific though. In the UK my migraine medication was available over the counter, I still had to have a discussion with the pharmacist every time I bought it. Conversely when ever I've needed an actual prescription medication, in an emergency or whatever, that has always had to go through my doctor to get the prescription sorted.

[denton-scratch]

/me also a brit.

My go-to pain-relief used to be a product called Codis, which was soluble aspirin+codeine. It used to be available OTC, until about 8 years ago, then it disappeared. You can still buy paracetamol+codeine OTC ("Paracodol?). My understanding is that aspirin causes vasodilation, which causes more rapid absorption of codeine. Supposedly that's why Codis worked better than Paracodol.

I don't know why they took it off the shelves. There was no announcement; it just disappeared.

Codis was effective for both migraines and period pains, as reported to me (I'm not a woman, and I don't suffer from migraines).

[benj111]

This was migraleve it didn't have any painkilling element in the first tablet (it was 2 parts) not much point anyway as by that point I was throwing up.

[deathclassic]

asprin + codiene sounds like a based painkiller combo. Who needs a liver tbh?

[heavyset_go]

It's paracetamol that's hard on the liver, not aspirin or codeine.

[throwanem]

Well, sure, countries will have their own laws over this or anything. Ours are defined at the federal level and thus apply the same everywhere in the country; since GGP and I are both USian, that's the basis on which I replied. (I don't know enough about any other country's such laws to speak to them!)