Adventures into Mexican Markets, Part 3: Trip to the Farmacia

Here in Mexico, for many years there has been a reputation for cheap, easy to acquire pharmaceuticals.  Americans and Canadians have been smuggling mexican pharmaceuticals for years to save costs on their prescriptions.  In many cases, what's considered prescription only in the United States is over the counter here, with certain drugs requiring a doctors recommendation.  Despite recent crackdowns, the farmacia market here is still pretty free in many ways, certainly freer than the experience you have at an American pharmacy. 

Recently, laws have changed to make it so many more drugs require a prescription than ever.  The way it is written on the law books is that if you get caught buying certain drugs without a prescription, you can face up to 25 years in mexican jail.  Something to remember is that just about everything on the books here in Mexico in terms of laws and penalties is all fire and brimstone on paper. For the most part, things are not as they appear on those lawbooks, they certainly don't even have a fraction of the number of people in prison that the United States does, despite their heinous laws and penalties.  Things are a lot more grey here than the black and white books would have you believe.  

I love the freedom that exists in the farmacias here in Mexico, even if I myself am not really a fan of taking pharmaceuticals on the regular. Due to the highly competitive atmosphere, there are farmacias of all types and price ranges.  Some are more like convienient stores than farmacias, wheras others are strickly down to business, desk and a pharmacist.  They are able to advertise their advantage freely(with billboards with catch phrases like Mismo pero mas barato, it's the same but cheaper), be it superior customer care or dirt cheap products without hassle.  The one farmacia chain has a fat dancing doctor mascot that they make dance to club music to advertise their low prices.  

Many of the drugs that are prescription only in the states are actually over the counter drugs here.  Determining whether you can buy it over the counter is as easy as going to a farmacia with the name of the drug you are searching for, or it's mexican equivalent if it has one.  There are also lists online, but if you have the free time and access to farmacias, it's a good experience to visit them and find out directly for yourself, not all internet lists are current. They'll let you know right then or there if you need a prescription, making a little writing motion in the air while shaking their head if you don't speak the language. There are a lot of drugs including opiates that you need a doctors prescription for, although that prescription is in most cases very easy to acquire. 

If you do need a prescription for something, just go to a nearby(possibly in house, depending on the farmacia) doctor and pay him between 35-300 pesos, depending on what you're going for and the experience you're looking for. Specialists can be up to 500 pesos for a visit.  Tell him your symptoms, or why you need that drug and you'll probably walk out with that recommendation and probably some others that he will come up with himself.  I've never actually gone through the process of going to a doctor yet here, but from my understanding it's extremely easy.  

As for variety, there are all kinds of farmacias.  The Farmacia Guadalajara chain has a small bakery in the middle of every store, or at least they do in Acapulco.  Many farmacias are open 24hr but not all are.  They exist everywhere, from the coastera to the central market.  There are holistic farmacias in the Coasta Azul area and I would assume elsewhere, with holistic doctors nearby, for those who prefer not to use pharmaceuticals.  I've seen all sorts of range in price, depending on location and chain which caters to everyone from the broke and out of money to the rich and famous.  

I've bought all sorts of items from the farmacia, one of the first being birth control.  I was extremely excited for Mexico's cheaper pharmaceuticals as I am a user of birth control. For the birth control I was using, it costed about 20 dollars a month, with insurance.  I was looking for a cheaper version as soon as I got into Acapulco and had the funds to do so. What I found in my search was interesting, birth control was somewhat hard to find, which made sense as I live in a predominately catholic country.  For the most part, farmacias in grocery stores didn't have this product, and if they did they generally only have the morning after pill and Yaz which has a bad reputation in the states.  I've seen the morning after pill go for anything from 100-500 pesos, or 5-25 USD. Condoms are sold everywhere, by the way, including the popular convenient store Oxxo. 

Something I also found interesting was that the farmacies that did have birth control, had surprisingly few options, sometimes only having the option of the discontinued and flamed Yaz from the United States.  This pill is known for making women sterile, as well as giving them many other unpleasant and sometimes life long side effects. So at first I was a bit disenchanted and concerned, as I depend on birth control for many things, especially pregnancy prevention. It wasn't long before I stumbled upon the Farmacia Guadalajara chain and found their in store bakeries, did I find what I was looking for.  The photo above is my birth control that I acquire from that store without a prescription, for between 17-22 pesos a month or about 1 USD.  I've never had a problem with it as long as I've been on it.

Something most farmacias have is feminine care products, but for some reason most stores here only seem to carry primarly sanitary pads, with little to no tampons.  Those are featured at certain stores and are double the price(35 pesos for ten of them, still not terrible) of the alternative.  Something I've noticed in general is that despite being an outwardly sexual culture in many ways, Mexicans are shy and traditional about underwear.  Thongs and things of that nature are rare, about as rare as tampons seem to be.  The women here are known for wearing skin tight pants, with brief style of underwear obvious in one way or another.  

The next farmacia adventure was realistically for rubbing alcohol, something that's been extremely disappointing here in Mexico. In the United States, there's rubbing alcohol everywhere, a lot of it very high strength. I've found 99% in the ghetto of Detroit, it's so common.  Here, there's only 70% alcohol for the most part, and it's all denatured(they add toxins essentially to discourage people from drinking it), which means its damn near unusable for the purposes we use it for, extracting dabs from glass pipes to produce a product called reclaim, smokable but much lower quality than dab. We also use it to clean and sterilize our extracting equiptment, something we prefer to have higher percentage alcohol content for.  I've found 90% at one store and they actually quit carrying it recently, leaving us again without a solution.

We have ventured to the farmacia for carisoprodol, a muscle relaxer commonly referred to as soma.  We were interested in it for several reasons, some of them being the massive amount of tension caused by my jaw injury and John's problematic back.  It does have recreational effects too in the right doses if you're into that sort of thing.  The first several farmacies we went to didn't carry it, but we eventually found it at the Farmacia Guadalajara chain for over 410 pesos. We haven't been able to find carisoprodol just by itself, it's always mixed with some sort of lower level pain reliever.  In the case of the super expensive kind, it's naproxen. After some more looking, we found it cheaper at Farmacias Del Ahorro for only 169 pesos. The box is actually marking the maximum price at 289, so the farmacia is actually able to set their own prices on things, only dealing with a maximum price limit. This one uses diclofenaco in it as the pain reliever it's cut with.  For the most part, it's my favorite muscle relaxer in terms of function, although I don't use them terribly often.

At a certain point, everyone needs to deal with some stomach problems here in Mexico as you are adjusting to a completely different food supply. There are many drugs for the purpose that are really affordable for the most part. There are more naturally based ones like the Sinuberase(163 peso maximum price) pictured above.  That stuff is literally just gut bacteria in a pill that you take when you have digestive upset, it resets the amount of good bacteria which snaps your gut back into shape.  I've found it to be extremely effective at what it does and a box lasts a good while, even if you're dealing with a decent amount of digestive trouble.   I have another product my friend bought me when I was first dealing with the troubles. I never used it as my troubles passed before my friend was able to give it to me, but I've got it around in case I ever need it.  

Something I love about the farmacias here are that naturally based medications are pretty common place.  Take Arnica montana for example, derived from a daisy native to the north western United States and climates similar.  It's known for it's topical muscle relaxing and pain relieving abilities but I've never heard of it until moving here.  As pictured above, it's sold just like any other pain relieving gel but it's naturally based, containing arnica and another plant based pain reliever hamamelis virginiana.  I've used it many times, and it actually does work. At just about every farmacia you can find a chamomile alternative eye drop solution sold right next to the chemically based clear eyes version.  It's essentially sterile chamomile tea, that you use as eye drops.  I've used it before(in homemade tea) and it does help pain, itching and irritation.  

We've also purchased tramadol, pictured above, to try it for the pain relieving effects.  We found it is pretty common and over the counter.  The price was basically the same everywhere, 127 pesos.  From my understanding it's an opiate alternative that acts on the same parts of the brain.  I'm pretty sure it's still addictive, though.  I've taken it a few times and one pill has pretty strong effects on someone my size, and they last awhile as it's extended response.  The feeling I experience is similar to being drunk, which isn't necessarily desired.

The farmacias here have a lot to offer, depending on what you're looking for.  Something to remember about Mexico in general is that if you're looking for something and can't find it, look harder.  There's almost always a little store somewhere that has exactly what you need, you just have to be willing to ask around.  Mexicans are more than willing to point you in what they think is the right direction.  Sometimes they're spot on, sometimes they aren't but it's always an adventure as you start to find out what all these little shops you pass by on the daily contain. The same is true for farmacias, some of them have been pretty interesting and cool experiences.  The prices are breathtaking, what's considered expensive for a prescription here is dirt cheap in the states.  Where else can you complain about an item costing 20 USD when in the states it costs more than a hundred without insurance.  Here with digging, you'll almost always find what you're looking for and you'll spend less and learn a lot in the process.