# Canada, acetaminophen and alcohol **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140 "2003-05-09T16:30:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/1 "2003-05-09T16:30:48Z")
I am going to Canada next month. When I visit the USA I stock up on bulk acetaminophen in 500s and alcohol from the pharmacy for diluting perfume oil into scent. In the UK, acetaminophen can only be sold in 20s in bubble packs and are very expensive. Alcohol is only available when ‘denatured’- made to stink and therefore useless for my needs. Are these two items available easily from pharmacies in Canada? ---
**Author:** ![Feynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@Feynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feynn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/2 "2003-05-09T16:37:25Z")
Acetaminophen is very inexpensive here. The alcohol sold in pharmacies here is also de-natured and acquiring pure alcohol is very difficult. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/3 "2003-05-09T16:43:54Z")
Can you explain what you are doing? I don’t quite follow. Just for my own curiosity. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/4 "2003-05-09T16:52:22Z")
Is Acetominophen expensive enough elsewhere in the world to warrant “stocking up” while abroad? Even Tylenol here, which is the best-known name-brand, is pretty damn cheap. I can’t imagine something so common and patentless can be all that expensive…can it? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/5 "2003-05-09T16:54:49Z")
You can only buy Tylenol in packs of 20 in the States?? ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/6 "2003-05-09T16:56:35Z")
Thanks Feynn. That’s the information I needed. I will be able to stock up on acetaminophen. The alcohol will have to wait for my next visit to the States. Bernse- I’m not sure what the problem is. I need acetaminophen for pain and buying it in small quantities is annoying and expensive. The alcohol is for making up perfume oil into scent- if you use water it doesn’t evaporate like usual scent. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/7 "2003-05-09T17:00:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*You can only buy Tylenol in packs of 20 in the States?? \*\* No, in the UK. That’s why I stock up when I am in the States. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/8 "2003-05-09T17:33:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pjen \* > \*\*Bernse- I’m not sure what the problem is. I need acetaminophen for pain and buying it in small quantities is annoying and expensive. The alcohol is for making up perfume oil into scent- if you use water it doesn’t evaporate like usual scent. \*\* Heh, nevermind! I thought the tylenol was related to your perfume oil somehow. And I will second what Feynn said. It is dirt cheap, especially generic/store brands in large quantities. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/9 "2003-05-09T17:49:53Z")
You could always buy the 40% alchohol/water mixture that liquor stores here sell, if that works for your needs. It’s designed to be used for drinks, and has no unusual nasties in it. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/10 "2003-05-09T17:56:12Z")
Pjen, perfume oil should be diluted using a denatured alcohol formulated for that purpose. In the U.S., this would be Specially Denatured Alcohol 39C, which is denatured with 1% diethyl phthalate. Up to 5 gallons of SDA can be purchased without a BATF permit. Unlike pure alcohol, there is no excise tax on denatured alcohol. There are distilled alcohols in the UK other than the common methylated spirits; check with a distiller in your area. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/11 "2003-05-09T18:01:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by occ \* > \*\*Is Acetominophen expensive enough elsewhere in the world to warrant “stocking up” while abroad? Even Tylenol here, which is the best-known name-brand, is pretty damn cheap. I can’t imagine something so common and patentless can be all that expensive…can it? \*\* It can only be sold blister packed and in 12s (fewer than I thought) in the UK- as an attempt to cut down on damage from suicide attempts. This makes it expensive- about US$1.20 per pack- 10c a tablet. In bulk in the US they are a little over 1c each. Link: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/172674.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/172674.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/12 "2003-05-09T18:07:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nametag \* > \*\*Pjen, perfume oil should be diluted using a denatured alcohol formulated for that purpose. In the U.S., this would be Specially Denatured Alcohol 39C, which is denatured with 1% diethyl phthalate. Up to 5 gallons of SDA can be purchased without a BATF permit. Unlike pure alcohol, there is no excise tax on denatured alcohol. > > There are distilled alcohols in the UK other than the common methylated spirits; check with a distiller in your area. \*\* Yes, but in the UK, full excise duty is charged- about £10 ($15) a litre as tax, making it about $20 in the store. The stuff I get in the US costs about $1.50 a US pint- big difference! ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/13 "2003-05-09T20:56:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pjen \* > **In the UK, acetaminophen can only be sold in 20s in bubble packs and are very expensive.** I thought it wasn’t sold as acetaminophen at all, but rather as paracetamol. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pjen \* > **It can only be sold blister packed and in 12s (fewer than I thought) in the UK- as an attempt to cut down on damage from suicide attempts.** I can’t imagine too many ways of committing suicide worse than acetaminophen overdose. It’s slow (as in, several days) and extremely painful. Perhaps the UK government ought better have educated its citizens on the horrors of a slow painful death rather than legislating an easily-defeatable packaging system. If someone is intent on committing suicide, I doubt that an extra ten minutes of popping blister packs is going to make them change their mind. ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/14 "2003-05-09T21:18:23Z")
Ethyl alcohol is denatured when sold as rubbing alcohol, but propyl alcohol is usually not scented, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Mad\_Matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Mad\_Matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mad_Matt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/15 "2003-05-09T22:11:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pjen \* > \*\*It can only be sold blister packed and in 12s (fewer than I thought) in the UK- as an attempt to cut down on damage from suicide attempts. This makes it expensive- about US$1.20 per pack- 10c a tablet. \*\* I was in the supermarket (Sainsbury’s) today and picked up a pack of 16 (own brand) for 29 pence. I don’t know what this works out to in dollars and cents (US), but I suggest you shop around. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/16 "2003-05-10T06:18:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by psychonaut \* > \*\*I thought it wasn’t sold as acetaminophen at all, but rather as paracetamol. > I can’t imagine too many ways of committing suicide worse than acetaminophen overdose. It’s slow (as in, several days) and extremely painful. Perhaps the UK government ought better have educated its citizens on the horrors of a slow painful death rather than legislating an easily-defeatable packaging system. If someone is intent on committing suicide, I doubt that an extra ten minutes of popping blister packs is going to make them change their mind. \*\* QUOTE]\*Originally posted by psychonaut \* \*\*I thought it wasn’t sold as acetaminophen at all, but rather as paracetamol. I can’t imagine too many ways of committing suicide worse than acetaminophen overdose. It’s slow (as in, several days) and extremely painful. Perhaps the UK government ought better have educated its citizens on the horrors of a slow painful death rather than legislating an easily-defeatable packaging system. If someone is intent on committing suicide, I doubt that an extra ten minutes of popping blister packs is going to make them change their mind. \*\* [/QUOTE] It is sold as paracetamol in the UK and much of the rest of the world but this is not usually recognised by North Americans which is why I used their terminology. Of course this denies to North Americans that awful joke- "Why are there no aspirin in the Jungle? Because the Parrots eat em all!) Before I stopped work I was an Emergency Psychiatry worker so I have some experience of suicide and parasuicide. Despite much education, tablet overdose, particularly acetaminophen/paracetamol is a frequent choice, especially by young women. No-one ever left my care without a request to find any other way than this for attempting to end it all or to express distress; I gave grahic accounts of lingering deaths by liver failure in now regretful patients. However, it seems to be culture bound and continues to be a problem. The law now only allows acetaminophen/paracetamol to be sold blister packed, and in small numbers, and you can only buy two packs at a time. This at least slows down the decision making process. Despite this I personally do not agree with the law for a number of reasons, but that is a differfent story, ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/17 "2003-05-10T06:24:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by psychonaut \* > \*\*I thought it wasn’t sold as acetaminophen at all, but rather as paracetamol. > I can’t imagine too many ways of committing suicide worse than acetaminophen overdose. It’s slow (as in, several days) and extremely painful. Perhaps the UK government ought better have educated its citizens on the horrors of a slow painful death rather than legislating an easily-defeatable packaging system. If someone is intent on committing suicide, I doubt that an extra ten minutes of popping blister packs is going to make them change their mind. \*\* QUOTE]\*Originally posted by psychonaut \* \*\*I thought it wasn’t sold as acetaminophen at all, but rather as paracetamol. I can’t imagine too many ways of committing suicide worse than acetaminophen overdose. It’s slow (as in, several days) and extremely painful. Perhaps the UK government ought better have educated its citizens on the horrors of a slow painful death rather than legislating an easily-defeatable packaging system. If someone is intent on committing suicide, I doubt that an extra ten minutes of popping blister packs is going to make them change their mind. \*\* [/QUOTE] It is sold as paracetamol in the UK and much of the rest of the world but this is not usually recognised by North Americans which is why I used their terminology. Of course this denies to North Americans that awful joke- "Why are there no aspirin in the Jungle? Because the Parrots eat em all!) Before I stopped work I was an Emergency Psychiatry worker so I have some experience of suicide and parasuicide. Despite much education, tablet overdose, particularly acetaminophen/paracetamol is a frequent choice, especially by young women. No-one ever left my care without a request to find any other way than this for attempting to end it all or to express distress; I gave grahic accounts of lingering deaths by liver failure in now regretful patients. However, it seems to be culture bound and continues to be a problem. The law now only allows acetaminophen/paracetamol to be sold blister packed, and in small numbers, and you can only buy two packs at a time. This at least slows down the decision making process. Despite this I personally do not agree with the law for a number of reasons, but that is a differfent story, ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/18 "2003-05-10T06:54:53Z")
Can you get the caplets with acetaminophen/caffeine/codeine in the U.K. **Pjen**? ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/19 "2003-05-10T08:15:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mad Matt \* > \*\*I was in the supermarket (Sainsbury’s) today and picked up a pack of 16 (own brand) for 29 pence. I don’t know what this works out to in dollars and cents (US), but I suggest you shop around. 😉 \*\* Yes, I had forgotten that resale price maintenance on medicines had been dropped since my last visit to the States when I last topped up. However, they’re still three times the price of USA drug store acetaminophen/paracetamol. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140/20 "2003-05-10T08:17:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by donkeyoatey \* > \*\*Can you get the caplets with acetaminophen/caffeine/codeine in the U.K. **Pjen**? \*\* Yes- [http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=paracetamol+caffeine+codeine](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=paracetamol+caffeine+codeine) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-acetaminophen-and-alcohol/174140.md?page=2)