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An interesting analogy of the situation which didn't make the article is a good analogy of the cold medicine racket would be, imagine if liquor stores were not
by VLM 12y ago
An interesting analogy of the situation which didn't make the article is a good analogy of the cold medicine racket would be, imagine if liquor stores were not able to legally sell components of mixed drinks. So a liquor store could only sell tens of thousands of different ready to drink products such as screwdrivers, old fashioneds, rum and cokes, mint juleps, but it was practically impossible if not illegal to buy plain old vodka in a bottle.
And for marketing and trademark reasons you had to study the fine print to figure out what is in each bottle. So you can't buy a bottle of ready to drink screwdriver, you have to look in the fine print for "Slammer Canadian Lite Extra Dry Extreme" to figure out its a bottle of screwdriver.
I'm not suggesting I want bulk generic powder guafenisien but life would be a lot simpler if it was more like the produce aisle, OK I got runny nose and cough so take one of pseudoephedrine and one of dextromethorphan and call it good, instead of the "confuseopoly" system we currently have, which I'm sure reduces everyone's quality of life while increasing profits.
- maxerickson 12y agoOne of the points made in the article is that you can buy single drug generics and combine them as needed. So for your analogy, the liquor store would have to have a small shelf of mixers and giant coolers full of premixed stuff. But flavor is easier to deal with than medicine, so people won't put up with it, so liquor stores mostly sell ingredients.