A year or so ago I, a tourist in America, went to a pharmacy in Boston to get some headache tablets (ibuprofen). This was somewhere in the city center, very close to Boston Common, and felt a modern, safe neighborhood so far as a foreigner could judge.

Every single item on every single shelf was behind glass. I had to get help to get myself a pack of cheap non-prescription painkillers.

This article focuses on the phenomenon, but it misses the key point that struck me that day. I could only imagine such precautions were due to endemic theft. And petty theft for essentials such as medicines doesn’t speak to stealing for profit, but to desperation, like stealing food. I was left wondering: what is going on in America?