Sad demise of another standard medicine

[Cush]

Yesterday SWMBO had a dose of the trots, so I did the shopping and she asked me to get a BP bottle of Kaolin & Morphine, as she had used the last of our stock. This is a standard medicine in our cabinet, just like Aspro and we have always carried a bottle on our travels, even through the customs in the USA. TESCO did not have any, so I drove to Boots in town. They have stopped stocking it but I might get it at an independent chemist, not many of them in town but Super Drug had some. The lady there would only sell me one bottle and warned me that they may not be getting any more in. Apparently it is because of the Morphine content. What a sad state of affairs. A good stand by medicine is withdrawn because of misuse.

 

[ScotiaLass]

Blimey! I didn't know that stuff was still available!!
I keep a couple of Imodium tablets in my first aid kit in the car....you don't need a drink with them as they dissolve in the mouth - very handy.
I'm sure you'll find a suitable replacement but I know how it is when you're used to something and it change!
Hope Mrs Cush is better today.

 

[ASC1951]

Psyllium seeds are readily available from my local ethnic emporium for £1.99/400g and IME are a sovereign remedy against any bowel looseness or stiffness. Very good for the innards and an essential part of my hand crafted muesli. Even better than whole linseeds, which also feature.
TBH I've never seen the combination of a strong opiate and some China clay as A Good Thing.

 

[swee'pea99]

Hadn't thought about it in years, but you're right - when I was a kid, it was just one of the things in the cabinet, along with plasters and aspirin. But now you mention it, it does seem surprising that anything whose very name includes '& morphine' is still available over the counter. (Not that it shouldn't be...opium is a drug that has served mankind well over the millennia - but given the ignorance-driven hysteria that drives the prevailing cultural take on anything drug-related.)

 

[Ciar]

you can still buy it round here, as well as dr collis browns

 

[Archie_tect]

What happened to Remegels?

 

[Fnaar]

Milk of Magnesia
Andrew Liver Salts... ah, the memories of the medicines of yesteryear

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I know Kaolin & Morphine disappeared around these parts a few years ago. Shame that, always worked for me.

 

[asterix]

They're wrong I'm afraid. Kaolin and morphine has not been withdrawn. It's still a licensed product.

It's just been superseded by better products and so many community chemists don't bother stocking it.

They are only better if you think they are better.

 

[Fnaar]

Whatever the ailment, I usually find that these work:

Failing that, I might try some:

 

[Canrider]

To add to Reg, I doubt the amount of morphine in the mixture was enough to be misuse-able. And I've definitely seen it on shelves in the past year or so, as well as the non-morphine kaolin mixture.

 

[swee'pea99]

Milk of Magnesia
Andrew Liver Salts... ah, the memories of the medicines of yesteryear

Plink plink fizz, eh, eh? (Does anyone still use alka-seltzer?)

 

[Fnaar]

Plink plink fizz, eh, eh? (Does anyone still use alka-seltzer?)

Last heard of in an Oasis lyric (Supersonic):

I know a girl called Elsa
She's into Alka Seltzer
She sniffs it through a cane on a supersonic train
She made me laugh

 

[swee'pea99]

Last heard of in an Oasis lyric (Supersonic):

I know a girl called Elsa
She's into Alka Seltzer
She sniffs it through a cane on a supersonic train
She made me laugh

Sounds more Ian Dury than Oasis. (Not that I'm suggesting you're wrong or anything...just saying, it sounds like an Ian Dury couplet.)

 

[Firestorm]

When i was a pharmacy student in the mid 70s i had a holday job in the dispensary at boots
We once caught a bloke trying to buy his 2nd bottle of K&M that week. A quick phone round the other chemists in town and we found it was about the 5th of the week
Dr collis brown had to be pit in the part 1 poison register in those days as fid the cough medicine Phenergan.
Modern Collis browns has just 1% of the active ingredient it had back then