My experience with family in the UK and Ireland is that it's not hard to get the equivalent of Tylenol with codeine. Antibiotics seem to be perscribed more often as well, but that's off topic.
Yes, Co-codamol (paracetamol and codeine) is cheap and available over the counter in the UK. They have "Three days use only" in large letters on the front, like cigarette packet warnings.
