Paternalism?

Overall, in the United States, I think that prescriptions are far too broadly required.

For example, I get extreme nausea for about 6-8 hours when I get a viral infection. It's truly miserable, and to the point that I must lay down and can't walk for even a few meters (standing up makes the nausea worse). But, the last few times I had this, I had to go completely without treatment (meaning, for me, ondansetron/zofran) because it takes a massive fraction of that time to see a doctor and it's quite difficult to haul myself to an urgent care when I can't walk, and the telehalth doctor that I saw via my insurance company agreed that ondansetron was indicated but his telehealth company didn't have that drug on the allowed prescriptions whitelist, so he refused to prescribe it. This is despite me knowing the exact needed dosage, the exact needed drug, and being reasonably sure that it wasn't a symptom of something more dangerous. Yet, the law says that this knowledge is irrelevant, and I need someone else's permission, resulting in me being in completely unnecessary misery for a day.

And, in that story, it's just a day, and has no lasting consequences. It gets much worse for other people in some cases.

And, could loosening of prescription paternalism result in people making mistakes? Of course. But, I'm allowed to go and buy power tools, to drive a car (licensing requird, but it's realistic to get this license, while the same isn't true for a medical license and even then self prescription is heavily discouraged), and many other dangerous and complex things.