When I lived in Belfast for a year, I was quite shocked at the small sizes of OTC medicine, such as the paracetomol Fiona was mentioning above. I was also told by my fiance who I was living with, that you could only buy so much of it during any one transaction at the store. For instance, if you needed paracetomol, you had to buy it like 20 at a time. You couldn't buy 3 x 20 at one time at the checkout counter. So I guess you'd have to go in the store, buy 20, take them to your car, go back in the store, buy 20 more, etc., etc. When he came to America, and saw bottles of Tylenol on the shelves, with like 250 tablets in one bottle, he was blown away. I remember one Christmas, that's what I took over to give him as a present, so he wouldn't be bothered with continuously buying such small amounts. He probably still has that giant bottle to this day. Guess their rationing policy was done as a means to keep people from choosing to overdose, or overdosing accidentally. But I saw it as being wrong for consumer's rights. Stuff's always cheaper when you buy in bulk. Why not be given the choice?