My husband and I were living in Germany during the transition to the euro. I had many debates with my German friends about this. I kept insisting that they were losing their sovereignty, they insisted that I was insane. “This will just make travel and trade easier in Europe.”
We went back a few years later for another PCS move and by the time we left, I had German friends begging me to buy them Centrum multivitamins. They were offering me an insane mark-up (more than 100%) if I would do this for them.
Turns out the European Parliament had classified vitamins as drugs and you could no longer get them without a prescription.
There’s a lot of stuff you can’t get in Europe, and I surmise this is becoming the model for Obamacare.
Take the lowly aspirin, for example.
In Europe, aspirin is strictly regulated. They let you buy 24 tablets a pop, and that’s it. Of course, the pricing is just as bizarre: typically 5-6 dollars per pack, which makes the thing a goldmine, and with the actual level of necessary use almost an extra tax. Aspirin is actually stricter regukated than opiates; getting large amounts of aspirin for long-term use is formally impossible. There’s a loophole though, which is to have some friend in the US send you the stuff as a gift. Such loopholes wil probably disappear once Obama is installed for next term, Obamacare set in stone and the Euro-iification of America completed.