In England this year we purchased both ibuprofen and Acetaminophen or paracetomol with codeine in retail pharmacies without a prescription.

Are these products sold without prescription in France?

I am loaded up on the Boots version of voltarene emulgel, but I would like to see if I can get estrace cream for less than the $70.00 US copay I have to pay for it. If it is only available by script, I can easily take one with me. I just wonder about price and availability.

You will not have any problems. If you have a prescription that needs filled, bring it with you. They price will be somewhat less than at home in the States.

Tuscanlifeedit your shopping list looks like mine, ibu and voltaren! My husband's glaucoma medicine was available in Paris , I just showed the bottle to the pharmacist. 17 Euro as opposed to $60.00 here!

avalon: so you can get the ibuprofen with codeine in France? No script needed?

I will definitely try for the estrace.

Yes, you can get ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol here) with small amounts of codeine OTC. Also cough syrup.

Excellent. I have pain meds prescribed, but I hate to take it regularly, and I have found that the ibuprofen with codeine is a very effective drug when I can't quite do it on ibuprofen alone, but don't really want to take the prescribed pain meds.

This is a big relief. Thank you all.

You can buy it, but can you bring it back to the US? This isn't meant to be snarky; I really am interested in knowing. Drugs for which you have a prescription would clearly not be a problem, but opiates are controlled substances here.

As one of the previous posters stated the amount of codeine in the products available in Europe are less (usually 8mg vs 32 mg or more) than what the Rx would be here. It is unlikely that it would be a problem getting a bottle or two through customs into the US, I wouldn't try to bring a truckload back.

I didn't know that France sold the codeine-ized pain killers OTC . . . good for future reference.

That said, I've ALWAYS purchased the Nurofen-plus and similar opiate-infused pain killers in the UK and US customs could care less. The Nurofen plus codeine is about 12.5mg/pill, unless that level has been lowered in the last couple of years; the Boots varietal with paracetamol is 7.46mg per pill.

Look: There is no disclosure question on the landing form for US citizens. The dogs are looking for something else (cocaine, cannabis, heroin, but not an opium derivative with its smell masked by corn cellulose, guar gum, ibuprofen/paracetamol and two or more levels of packaging and buried in your dirty laundry). And the officers do not question you about it. If you don't tick off a "yes" answer on your landing form or a riduculous amount for "souvenirs," then the customs officers usually just run your US passport through the machine and tell you "welcome home."

If they want to be insane enough to take my ibuprofen with codeine, they can have it. However, I brought 4 boxes back from the UK and nothing was said or noticed.

I have been bringing medicines of all kinds (including some not OTC meds prescribed by French doctors) back to the USA for years without ever being questioned or having anything confiscated. In fact, I almost always visit a French pharmacy precisely to stock up on certain meds that I can't get OTC here. I wouldn't worry about it.

Contrary to what I always hear about meds being easier to buy in France w/o a script, they would not even sell me Aleve last April w/o a script. I was very surprised.

Sue! That's so weird; and you are a French speaker. Did they give you a reason, or was it just BS?

Au revoir,
Deb

Indeed naproxen (Aleve) is not available OTC in France except in much smaller doses than Aleve and mixed with another molecule. Just different regulations in different countries...

They do have some unusual laws in various countries in Europe which can vary from what you'd expect. They won't sell certain OTC drugs in the same place as groceries or a Monoprix, for example, either, you have to go to a pharmacy, even though they are OTC. I'm not sure if that is to regulate the medicine or to protect pharmacies economically. And you can't even buy something like Pepto Bismol in France, they don't allow OTC meds with bismuth, as I recall.