No, these are not ‘Mother’s Little Helpers’, and no, I don’t have a problem. This is currently what my medicine cabinet looks like. It’s not as dramatic as it looks: there are Vitamin D pills (I live in the far north); anti-seasickness tablets (I lived on an island); paracetamol (I’m clumsy); anti-histamine (Scotland had a very high tree pollen count this past spring); and naproxen (last year’s bout of bursitis).
Notice they’re all in blister packs. All meds, prescription and OTC, are sold this way in the UK. Even some vitamins. This seems to be a safety measure to ensure people don’t overdose.
And I’ve just found out that you cannot purchase more that two packages (a total of 32 pills) of paracetamol at one time. If, for example, you and your husband are going on a two-week trip, you with a recent injury (say a sprain), and he with occasional back pain, you can’t just pop into Boots and buy a 50-pill jar of Tylenol. You would have to go to Boots and get two boxes of 16 pills each, then head over to Tesco and get another two boxes there. And if you use the self-checkout on the way out of Tesco, your paracetamol will be flagged, and a sales clerk will have to come over and approve your purchase there. Interesting.