If you want to buy medicine in Montreal, you need to go to a drug store. In Canada, you can’t some types of medicine unless you have a special note from a doctor. The special note from the doctor is called a prescription. [ordonnance] When you see the doctor and he or she gives you a special note to buy medicine, you can take it to any drug store to buy it.
Go to the back of the store and look for the sign that says “Pharmacy” [pharmacie]. You have to give the note to the pharmacist, who will prepare your prescription. You will have to wait a little while for them to call your name, and when you get your medicine, the pharmacist will explain how to take it, and give you some papers. It is important that you ask questions if you don’t understand.
If you have a prescription from a doctor in your country and you need more medicine, you have to go to a doctor in Canada to get a new prescription. Drug stores in Canada do not accept prescriptions from doctors in other countries. When you see the doctor in Montreal, tell her or him about your prescription from before and the reason for it, and she or he will write a new one for you.
You will have to pay for the medicine (and sometimes it is expensive), but you can get some of the money back from your International Student Health Insurance. You have to fill in the forms and send them to the company to get the money back.
There are other medicines in the store that you can buy with no prescription, like cold medicine and aspirin. If you have some a cold or some pain, and you don’t need to see a doctor, you can ask the pharmacist what non-prescription medicine is best for you.
Drug stores in Canada also have lots of “beauty products” including soap, perfume, cosmetics, shampoo and other things for your hair, shaving cream and razors, contact lens solutions, condoms, toothbrushes and toothpaste, toilet paper, kleenex tissue, vitamins and many other things.
Large drug stores usually have much more than drugs and shampoo. They often have food and candy, school supplies, soap for dishes and laundry, photo printing services, and post offices. They sell cameras and other electonic items, phone cards, magazines, birthday cards, lottery tickets and many other things.
There are three drug stores very near our school:
Jean Coutu
1675 Sainte Catherine Street West (on the corner of Saint Mathieu, downstairs from the CL building)
514-933-4221
Open every day 8:00 am until 12:00 midnight
Pharmaprix
1500 Sainte Catherine Street West (across the street from the EV building)
Tel.: 514-933-4744
Open every day 8:00 am until 12:00 midnight
This store has a post office.
Uniprix
in the Guy-Concordia metro station (Guy exit)
1550 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West
514-935-9687
Open Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, closed Sunday
This store has a post office.
»24-Hour Drug Store
There is a 24-Hour drug store in Montreal:
Pharmaprix
5122 Côte-des-Neiges
514-738-8464
Metro Côte-des-Neiges (blue)
Intensive English Language Program 