Here in Australia, melatonin is prescription only. A lot of people in my family buy it over-the-counter when on trips to the US (I often go there for work, plus my brother lives in Oregon). However, this year with COVID nobody has been able to get to/from the US. So I went to the doctor to ask for a prescription. He told me just to order it online instead from a grey-market supplier. Being the intense rule-follower that I am, I was stressed out about doing that, but he reassured me that there was nothing to worry about, the police aren't going to smash down my door over melatonin. Since it is over-the-counter in the US, you can buy so many different brands and formulations, and we've found one we all quite like (cherry-flavoured sublingual tablets), and all you can get on prescription here is expensive slow-release tablets that the kids can't swallow. (Compounding pharmacists also offer immediate release in capsule or liquid form, but sublingual tablets are still easier.)
2-3 years ago, Australia's equivalent to the FDA, the TGA, asked for public submissions on rescheduling melatonin to over-the-counter. The sleep specialists put in an objection, arguing that insomnia is a serious medical condition and requires professional care not over-the-counter treatment, and in response to their objection the TGA kept it prescription-only. The real world reality is that people's insomnia often has complex causes (including psychosocial factors) and a sleep specialist isn't necessarily the answer. Our son's paediatrician told us to give him grey market melatonin, he didn't refer him to a sleep specialist.
EDIT: Actually, I learn today they are going to make it available from pharmacists without prescription, but only for people aged over 55 – not going to help us this decade – https://www.tga.gov.au/book-page/13-melatonin
2-3 years ago, Australia's equivalent to the FDA, the TGA, asked for public submissions on rescheduling melatonin to over-the-counter. The sleep specialists put in an objection, arguing that insomnia is a serious medical condition and requires professional care not over-the-counter treatment, and in response to their objection the TGA kept it prescription-only. The real world reality is that people's insomnia often has complex causes (including psychosocial factors) and a sleep specialist isn't necessarily the answer. Our son's paediatrician told us to give him grey market melatonin, he didn't refer him to a sleep specialist.
EDIT: Actually, I learn today they are going to make it available from pharmacists without prescription, but only for people aged over 55 – not going to help us this decade – https://www.tga.gov.au/book-page/13-melatonin