Prescription Drug Requirements

The cluster discusses frustrations with US pharmacy policies requiring prescriptions for medications, comparisons to countries where drugs are available over-the-counter, and workarounds like online services or international purchases.

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#5446
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Activity Over Time

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Keywords

US ANYTHING OTC OK ID IDK EUA CVS rxsearch.asp WTF prescription drug doctor drugs antibiotics buy medicine doctors prescribed interactions

Sample Comments

yahoo893 Dec 8, 2013 View on HN

Wrong. Pharmacy doesn't work that way.

gok Oct 4, 2020 View on HN

How am I supposed to buy my drugs now?!

world2vec Apr 10, 2023 View on HN

In some countries it requires medical prescription so maybe for the author it's not really worth the hassle?

vsl Jun 21, 2018 View on HN

That's more about CYA. The pharmacist would risk a lot by giving out the medicine without proper prescription. They may know it's OK, but they won't risk an overzealous prosecution, for example.

smt88 Mar 22, 2019 View on HN

Doesn't help if they have your prescription saved in a database

bombcar May 6, 2023 View on HN

They’re not pharmacies. They’re convenience stores that sell drugs on the side.Use a dedicated pharmacy and you may get more performance, but the doctor delay may still occur.

maroonblazer Jun 20, 2016 View on HN

The app isn't delivering medicine. It's connecting the user with a doc who can write a prescription that's filled by a pharmacy.

caskstrength Dec 21, 2023 View on HN

Why can't the doctor verify all of this before prescribing? Seems to be some weird US thing.

kevin_thibedeau Aug 29, 2024 View on HN

US based online contact vendors reject orders without a signed prescription. The doctors intentionally don't sign them. The workaround is to order them from Canada

immibis Jul 5, 2025 View on HN

have you tried a physical pharmacy