Since November 1 Swedish supermarkets have been allowed to sell non-prescription medicines. Until now they have only been available at 900 government-owned pharmacies. That means that in this country of 9 million, there has been only one store for every 10,000 inhabitants where you could buy aspirin. (My feeling is that in any American community of 10,000 there would be 30-40 places with aspirin on sale.)

Despite the new law, very few stores have started selling “over the counter” drugs yet. In a walk around Stockholm’s Karlaplan today, none of the three supermarkets in the area had them. Down the street, at the Coop Nära store, non-prescription medicines have been available since the end of last week. But as can be seen in the photo, the very small handful of offerings have been placed behind one of the check-out counters. Apparently the prevailing feeling is that Swedes would run wild if they could pick up aspirin from a shelf by themselves. (Strangely, you can buy any of these products off a shelf at the state-owned pharmacies, where apparently it is believed there is something in the air to make people behave better than they would at a supermarket.)

The new pharmacy law breaks up the state monopoly. Virtually all of the press coverage has been about the spin-off of about half the 900 stores to four private chains. Yet the spin-off doesn’t change the essential problem: only one store for every 10,000 inhabitants. The fact that those four private chains might open new stores, or that other international or domestic chains might come in and just open new pharmacies on their own, have been left out of the reporting. And there has been very little coverage of the part of the law that allows supermarkets and similar stores to sell non-prescription drugs.

Recently Social Minister Göran Hägglund made a remark on Swedish Radio about not wanting to see an “American” development. Since the difference between Sweden and the US in the pharmacy issue is that there are lots more places to buy medicines in America, the opening hours are a lot longer, and the competition keeps down prices, it seems like the new law scares those who passed it.

On the other hand, the opposition Social Democrats, who have repeatedly vowed to rip up the new law if they returned to power, recently backed down from that apparently untenable position. Perhaps in the weeks and months to come, Swedish stores will slowly and timidly begin to take advantage of the opportunities given them under the new law.