Do they still do this? When I lived in a smaller town, there was a small hometowny pharmacy where you could sign for it, and buy a limited quantity (4 ounces?) without a prescription. I stopped by 3 drugstores today, and no one does it or could recommend a place that does. (My appearance may factor into this, I am a 22-year old with a shaved head, goatee and some nontraditional piercings in my ear.)
(Full disclosure: I work for the Wal-Mart pharmacy, and as a chain, we don’t do it either)
Where are you? I assume you’re not in the USA cause it would be pretty unthinkable for that to happen in the USA. I ask where you are because I have heard that you can do what you describe in Canada or Britain, but obviously if you have firsthand experience contradicting that, it would imply that as a practical matter the stuff is still hard to get.
Sorry, I am in the US, (Arkansas specifically, and Little Rock more specifically than that). I know it is a C-V drug. Maybe this is one of those old-timey traditions that has just died, or people in the big(ger) city abused it.
At least in Ohio, your pharmacist can still sell you said product over the counter, if you sign for it. The problem is that most of us don’t want to sell it, so we just don’t keep it in stock. We’re only supposed to sell it if, in our professional judgement, the patient needs it, and most of us won’t sell it to you, even if we do carry it, until you satisfy that requirement. My own requirement to meet that, as an example, are that you must have tried two available over the counter remedies without success first (or demonstrated intolerance to those agents), in addition to having a clear cough when you visit me (seriously, people have come in who didn’t cough once NOR exhibit any verbal scratchiness and got upset when I wouldn’t sell to them).
In the UK you can buy it over the counter in small concentrations as part of cough medicine; they always mix it with paracetamol or ibuprofen so that you’d tank your liver if you tried to get high with it.
Wikipedia seems to say that you can buy it over the counter in some places in America with a similar set-up, but I didn’t really understand it and it’s only wikipedia after all. 
Codeine - Wikipedia
It used to be quite common to be able to get it from the pharmacy. What killed it, more or less, was the influx of large, corporately owned drug stores that took over and had policies to not do it. This happened in the last 10 years or so. I know of no change in the law that makes it illegal to still do it.
Illinois law reads:
llinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Washington State, Massachusetts have schedule 5 drugs, including codeine behind the counter without a script.
When I worked in a pharmacy, we used to keep it behind the counter. The patient had to sign for it and all that. This was 5 years ago or so, in NJ. I assume the law is still the same. This was a small chain so like people said, larger chains may not supply it.
My wife had a recommendation (NOT a prescription) from an emergency room visit for A lingering and annoying rasping cough to obtain it – she was able to pick it up by simply showing ID and signing for it at a locally owned pharmacy (the same one Margaret Truman’s father-in-law ran, as it happens). They told her she couldn’t buy it again for 30 days – don’t know if that was state law or store policy.
IMHO, what killed it was the steady stream of opiate abusers shuffling from pharmacy to pharmacy, trying to get their dose. Scared other customers, took up the pharmacist’s time more than the sale was worth, and the word of mouth led to more of these folks popping by to get their codeine.
At least that’s what I was told by 4 or 5 pharmacists who ran their own Mom & Pop operations back in the 70’s and 80’s.
Well, that may be the problem, [bJJayRx1981**, I don’t have any symptoms of a cough. I don’t need it for cough, I have both Delsym and Mucinex DM if I did, and it’s not for the high, if I were into that, I have hydrocodone for my back (or clonazepam evenI could abuse. I often just do things for the novelty of doing it, but it started out as a fun project, but then when I got turned down it turned into one of those DAMMIT I’VE GOT TO GET THIS DONE! kind of things. Like I don’t want those people to win or something. :rolleyes:
But you know how it is when you get something stuck in your craw, right? Do I just sound like an insane nutter now?
Federal law allows the sell of schedule V drugs OTC with certain exceptions, the most important one is that the state in question allows it. I don’t know about other states, but the rule in Georgia is:
So, in the state of Georgia it is legal to sell Cheratussin AC over the counter as long as you don’t buy more then 4oz (118ml) in 48 hours, and sign the Controlled substance exception log. In practice, it is really hard to get a hold of it. Most pharmacies do not stock the 4oz bottle of Cheratussin, and it is against the law to just take 4oz out of our pint bottle and sell it to you (due to labeling requirements. It is possible to do, but requires that you have special labels available).
In my experience working in Georgia, the only way to get it is to even know a pharmacy that just happens to stock it (very rare), or to know the pharmacist well enough to have them order a 4oz bottle from their wholesaler and be willing to sell it to you.
I work for Rite Aid, and there is no rule against selling it. It is just something we hardly ever stock. If you have a relation with someone who works in another pharmacy and know you aren’t a drug seeker (ask the next time someone calls for a copy if you don’t know anyone), they should be able to order it for you.
Assuming it is legal in your state in the first place. I am not a lawyer, I am a Pharmacy student in the state of Georgia. Whatever I say might not be applicable in your jurisdiction.
Uh, yeah. 
I actually don’t know if we can get those, I had assumed that in pharmacies that did it they just poured it into a 4 oz bottle and slap a home-made label on it. Maybe it’s just that we’ve never ordered it because we all assumed we couldn’t. Although that would be circumventing this quest I’m on.
Lol, it would take a certain amount of familiarity with me to totally ‘get it’, but I talk on here about my working in a pharmacy, and I’m often full of strange ideas.
Federal labeling requirements do not make it as simple as pouring the cheratussin out of the pint bottle, into a normal 4oz prescription bottle and slapping a normal label on it. You could do that, but you would have to order the labels special in order to meet the federal requirements.
The only time I’ve actually ordered the 4oz bottle, it was actually for me (had a really bad cough). We just ordered the bottle from Mckesson like we would have any other medication. Just make sure you order the 118mL bottle, and not the 473mL bottle. (NDC probably just ends in 04 instead of 16 if I remember correctly). In Georgia, it is required by law to have the exception log in the pharmacy, so if it is the same in your state, the only thing stopping you is whatever policy Walmart has on selling it.
Since I know you do (or used to) work in a pharmacy from your previous posts, I’m sure your pharmacist knows someone that works at another chain or independent that would be willing to order it for you.
Slight side note first: Delsym and Mucinex DM both contain the generic agent dextromethorphan as their principal antitussive agent. They aren’t really meant to be taken together. Of course, I probably just misunderstood you. 
And certainly, I understand doing things just for the novelty of it (or for the “screw the man” sense that some people exhibit), but you’ll possibly have very little luck obtaining it without a cough.
That’s pretty much the number one reason my pharmacy manager doesn’t keep the 4oz bottles in stock. Corporate told us we’re supposed to sell it. She doesn’t want to (and I only will under the previous aforementioned circumstances).
Lol, as far as I can tell, the culture in my store is that the only relationship with other pharmacists in town is to bitch at them for needing copies 
And Jay, I know that, but as it turns out Delsym tastes terrible, but the only way to find that out is to buy it and taste it :smack:
I’ll check McKesson on Wednesday when I go in - Walmart HO has the selection of things we can access heavily restricted. Lord help us if we order the wrong brand of metformin or something.
JayRx1981, do you mind if I ask what chain you work for? I haven’t ever heard any directives from corporate about selling it, and I just wonder what chain wants their pharmacies to sell it. I know when I bought it there wasn’t much profit in it (I saw the invoice, and then the price I bought it for).
I work for a certain large grocery chain. That’s honestly all I’m willing to say on here (since companies started looking online for their employee activities, I’m not comfortable relating which one specifically). At any rate, they have in years past, sent out at least one email a year directing us to sell it/stock it to anyone who meets the minimum requirements for it’s purchase. Of course, given that the minimum requirements in Ohio involve the use of the nebulous “professional judgement” clause, most pharmacists in my chain use that as their excuse not to sell it. I personally don’t have a problem selling it (though I’ll defer to my pharmacy manager on stocking it or not), but I’m gonna make at least a good faith effort to make sure you really need it before I sell it.