One of the cleverest redesigns of a formerly useful product is an OTC meducation that I've used for several decades when a chronic "drip" causes congestion. Prevously sold as "®Robitusin" a small dose would loosen the mucous so that the next cough expelled it and cleared the plumbing.

"House brands" generally just called "Tussin" were available for a while.

In response to the idiot notion that any medication "has to do everyting," for the past couple of years it has only been stocked by local shops as "Tussin-DM" or "Tussin-CF." The -DM adds a "cough suppressant" and the -CF adds both the cough suppressant and an antihistamine.

So the medication (guiafenesin/glycerol guiacolate) that's intended to "liquify mucous" to make it easy to cough it out now comes only with an additive to prevent coughing (-DM=dextromethorphan), or with both the anti-coughing additive and a separate additive to dry up the mucous so that it's sticky and can't be expelled (-CF=Phenylephrine HCl).

I suppose mixing two medications with precisely opposite effects probably means poor results for either, and assures that you'll need another jug of their juice(?) to obtain any results at all, but either of the additives gives me a headache and prevents the old original main ingredient from working at all.

On rare occasions when I do find the original unadulterated product, the answer to "how many do you want" is "all of them," but it's become increasingy difficult to keep the small supply I'd like to have at hand.

Marketing trumps medicine - as usual - (of course why would I think otherwise?).

John