Not-So-Honest Dispensary

In Hong Kong, dispensaries are the place to go when you need a certain medication not easily found in the two main chain stores.

For example, in Mannings and Watson's a well-known pain-relief product called Nurofen is squirreled away under lock and key because it contains ibuprofen, but if the pharmacist has a day off or is on a lunch break, you can't get it. Apparently the government thinks people are too stupid to take ibuprofen safely, which is why it's behind the counter.

Yet you can walk into any local dispensary, request a box and you'll receive it, no questions asked. It's great to be treated like an adult capable of reading the informative insert.

The only problem is the drugs might be fake, which is why pharmacies caught selling phony pharmaceuticals are now being publicly shamed. In the past year 18 dispensaries were nabbed selling counterfeit medicine that looked like the real thing but contained inert and harmless substances. Only one was on Hong Kong Island, while eight were in Kowloon and nine were in the New Territories. Apparently the shop owners think people are stupider the farther they are from the big city.

After being outed, some of the bad dispensaries closed or changed their names. One was called Honest Dispensary, while another was called Top Good, hence the need to come up with new handles.

So the next time you bypass the chain stores to obtain something that really ought to available over the counter, remember to check the packaging to ensure that what you're getting will make the headache go away.

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