Hi everyone. I visited New York City back in 2019, had a sore throat on my first day and went to a pharmacy to get some lozenges for that. I’m from Australia and my go to is Strepsils. I took them for a couple of days but my throat was still hurting which was strange because usually it gets better quickly after taking Strepsils. I looked at the pack and noticed different active ingredients to Australia.
Strepsils in Australia contain alcohol (specifically, dichlorobenzyl alcohol). I went back to the pharmacy to look for some other lozenges but none of the ones available contained alcohol. I asked the pharmacist for help. She said there wasn’t anything over the counter she could give. I also asked why none of the sore throat medications contained alcohol and she said “because America is weird”. She said the best thing I could do was to find alcoholic mouthwash and gargle with that.
I can’t remember exactly what was in the US Strepsils. Tried to search for a photo of the US packaging for reference but couldn’t find it.
So is it true? Strepsils and all other sore throat medications in America don’t contain alcohol? I’m hoping you all can explain why this is? Is it a legal thing or something else? I’ve been so curious about this and haven’t found any information at all about it. Thanks so much!
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[You can get a 24 pack of strepsils at walmart](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Strepsils-Honey-and-Lemon-Lozenges-24-Pack/186137544) and it clearly states dichlorobenzyl alcohol on the package
Or amazon
Different brands are available in different countries and different countries have different regulations for different pharmaceuticals.
It’s not a brand I’m familiar with but a quick Google shows Strepsils are indeed served in the United States and are made with alcohol. Maybe whichever store you went to didn’t have them so go to a different one. Or just order them online.
They are made with alcohol.
What’s with all these questions that are entirely fabricated lately?
> So is it true? Strepsils and all other sore throat medications in America don’t contain alcohol?
No
Just to clarify with Dichlorobenzyl alcohol, it isn’t actually drinking alcohol. It means that on your benzene ring, you have 2 chlorines each bonded to a carbon, and the hydroxyl group (OH) bonded to another carbon, which makes it an alcohol. So the entire molecule is C7H5Cl2OH. Mouthwash contains ethanol, which is C2H5OH. Completely different.
Might be because teenagers will abuse it. I know not every kid will, but when I was in high school a lot of my classmates (and I’m guilty as well) would drink an entire Robitussin and a soda. I also had friends that would buy Coricidin Cough and Cold and take an entire sleeve of it. You’d hallucinate (both visual and hearing) and get high off it.
Another reason could be regional availability. We have a lot of stores/resturants (and items) that are like that… Like you can’t find an HEB outside of Texas or WaWa’s in the south (although looking at their website it seems Florida is getting some!)