I think dispensing w/o a prescription is OK if and only if it's done with information/"conseling" from the pharmacist--not counseling as in "how do you feel about this," but side effect counseling, counseling on "here's what to do if you think you're having a bad reaction, here's what's normal to expect, here's how long it's effective for, are you sure you understand the instructions?" etc. Pharmacists are really pretty well qualified for that, or so I'm led to believe..

but just indiscriminately making it available is, yes, a potential Bad Thing in my humble opinion. But i agree that the policy of having it for free if necessary is certainly in the right direction.