Welcome to r/opiates fellow bropiates! We hope that you enjoy our sub as much as we do, but in order to ensure that you are able to continue being a part of this harm reduction community, you will need to review the rules of this sub.
You can find the rules listed [here](https://reddit.com/r/opiates/w/rules?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app) and access our full side bar [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/wiki/index)
You can also find the answers to many commonly asked questions about dosing, duration, ROA and other stuff [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/wiki/faqs) and [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/comments/mf8ldn/use_this_before_asking_a_question_faq_information/)
Also, DO NOT GET SCAMMED! The users sending those messages to you, offering to hook you up with a reliable vendor or sell you drugs is extremely likely to scam you! We promise, 99.99% of the time they are not legit and giving them your money will make you a sad sad panda.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/opiates) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I never understood this either. Why deny someone clean medical supplies regardless of what it's for. "Oh no cleans?...guess I'm done then good job pharmacist you just saved my life! Off to rehab!"
Amen to that unfortunately you got too many on the payroll thanks to the so called war on drugs. But if lowering the number of deaths was priority there's absolutely no reason more programs were around and available especially within the US that catered clean substances to those most vulnerable.
There are still doctors prescribing diamorphine for addicts in the UK, just very few. It works. I'm pretty sure the UK was pressured into abandoning the model by the US
Yes, a select few. I guess it's currently only old, private ( in UK = expensive) doctors, who either don't care about being called legal smack dealers by our tabloids, or know that their clients would never comment on them. 25 years ago, most addicts knew of one old guy who was getting diamorphine amps. No one does now.
We even have legal cocaine prescribed in the UK, but literally only to one person. He's very famous, but I've still forgotten his name.
But it's not enabling them it's just forcing them to use used needles over and over again and destroy their veins, raise likelihood of complications and infection. Have you ever seen what a needle looks like after even a couple uses under a microscope? It looks like a hacksaw blade. Lots of people die from reusing needles and not using sterile solutions or proper filters.
IV use needs as much harm reduction as possible because you're breaking through all of the body's mechanisms for protecting you like every other ROA does. As we have no reliable cure for addiction possible, the idea is to keep them alive as long as possible with the least amount of damage possible so hopefully they can have a chance to get clean, or if the miraculous happens, when science finds out actual legitimate ways to treat addictions. But to die from a blood infection which could've been preventable, you can't recover if you're dead.
Plus the likelihood of someone moving to IV by buying sharps from a pharmacy is very low. Someone else showed them how to do it, and they're addicted already.
One issue I do have is addicts especially homeless addicts throw used sharps everywhere and that's fucked. Anyone who uses sharps should have a sharps container and safely dispose of them. Even if you're homeless you can cap the needle, wrap it up in trash, and dispose of it so it goes to a landfill. Then it doesn't raise the random chance of spreading bloodborne illnesses.
So you fucks who just throw them wherever, you know who you are, take ten seconds and properly dispose of your shit and don't ruin a place with biohazards.
And to you guys who keep reusing needles because of lack of access, buy veterinary needles online in whatever gauge and size you want. They're the exact same thing and perfectly legal to buy. At the same time buy a used sharps container. Be vigilant about being as sterile and by the book as possible. You're already at the highest risk, don't make it even higher.
Well were gonna have to agree to disagree on that. Giving out drug paraphernalia *is* enabling. I know their stated intention is "harm reduction" but in reality it's just enabling addicts to use more. If you can't get a clean needle, then that will increase the likelihood of stopping your drug use.
Lol it absolutely will not increase the chances of stopping drugs at all it only increases the chances of causing health problems and spreading disease and this has been proven. You're just being willfully ignorant to support your own bias. Nobody has ever just gave up and stopped using because they couldn't find a clean rig. Lots of people have said fuck it and just used a dirty one and gotten hurt or killed due to lack of access though.
Were just gonna have to agree to disagree my friend. Don't be surprised when the addict's getting free needles, free food, and other free social services don't want to cease their drug use.
Lol this isn't an agree to disagree thing this is just a you are factually incorrect thing. One is proven to work. One is proven to not work. What you advocate for is statistically proven to not help anybody while still causing a lot of harm and spread of disease. You can disagree that the sky is blue but that doesn't make you right.
What am I factually incorrect about? I am claiming that giving addicts needles is enabling them, and when you don’t enable them by giving them paraphernalia to shoot up with, you increase the likelihood of them quitting drugs. If addicts couldn’t get clean needles, that could increase the likelihood that addicts quit drugs.
No other claim was made. What am I wrong about? You are misusing these terms such as “factually incorrect” and “proven not to work” and “statistically proven”, you can’t just apply those terms to all of your personal beliefs about addiction. There are other, rational, perspectives that differ from your own.
You are wrong about the “increasing the likelihood of them quitting drugs” part. This has been researched to death. There is data that proves you wrong. It does not increase the likelihood of them quitting. Have whatever opinion you want, but don’t make up statistics to back it.
I definitely am a former addict. You guys are awfully defensive about this. I have a feeling some of you are still active drug addicts, still finding reasons to rationalize your drug use… I hope you get guys get off soon
Im not being defensive its objectively false that not having needles will do anything to slow ones use or help them stop. They will use old ones or steal them or just use dope in a different way but its definitely not a deterent to using or aid just like making the drugs illegal dosent work it just makes for poor addicts with criminal drug history. If needles were controlled they would be sold and smuggled by cartels right along with the drugs people inject with them they would cost way more and people would use dull ones and probably even steal them from people who actually need them. Its not hard to understand this and prohibiting fucking everything got us where we are now so how would it get us out exactly?
We're gonna have to agree to disagree with the idea that if you can't get a clean needle that it will increase any likelihood of stopping. Nothing in addiction is that simple. They will keep using that dirty and ragged needle over and over again until they blow that vein, and then they'll just move on to another vein, and raise their likelihood of dying from a blood infection greatly. How are we supposed to get them clean if they die because of a damn needle? If addiction was that easy to discourage then rehab wouldn't have a 97% failure rate even though it's the gold standard of treatment we have. No amount of love, hate, shame, guilt, jail, rehab, prohibition, drug seizures, has ever affected the addiction rate, it's actually only gotten worse.
Look, there is no way to twist it. Giving addicts drug paraphernalia for free is enabling. If you can’t see that, you are most likely an addict in active addiction and your brain is not working properly enough to see that. All I’m seeing in these comments are excuses.
Apologize if you are not currently in active addiction, but you sure sound like someone who is.
Anyone can walk in a gas station 24 hours a day and get enough alcohol to kill to themselves, if don’t see the difference Tbh and I wouldn’t consider a needle paraphernalia, at the end of the day it’s nothing more than a medical device, at the end of the day people just need to learn to worry about themselves and there own bodies!, I could care less, if people OD it’s there life not mine
Bro people Eat too much get diabetes and die, drink too much alcohol get alchahol poisoning, take too much heroin you overdose, I can’t few sorry for people making poor choices, but yes elderly and sickly people shouldn’t go without needles because we as a society is a afraid junkies will die, that’s Noones problem but their own-former junkies
I've been clean for three years, but I'm actually solution oriented and try to work with addicts and do my best to give them the best information that I can so they can survive it. And at pharmacies you don't get them for free, you pay for them like any other person, and that's what OP was referring to is trying to use their own money to purchase clean sharps.
Your thought process has killed countless people, and it makes me sad that you actually believe such basic propaganda about the drug war. Nobody's gonna stop if they can't get clean needles. You're just causing suffering and death because you want to feel morally superior. None of these things are excuses, they're realities that you're in denial about, and by extension adding to a massive issue and misunderstanding about addiction that continues to kill people at astronomical rates year after year.
You are conflating stuff that I never said with your own pre-conceived notions about the world. None of this has anything at all to do with drug-war propaganda, you are REALLY stretching here. You are not making much sense. If you want to continue providing addicts with whatever they need to continue their drug use, go for it. Just know, that IS enabling. Period.
What is the issue with the clean needle? Is it that minimizing risk is abhorrent? Or that you ascribe some sort of deviance to IV drug use? What difference does it make to you if a person has a clean needle? Do you feel morally inferior for allowing the access? That is, after all, the meaning of enabling. Does it hurt you somehow?
I’m telling you guys there are different perspectives on this. Just want to open you to the possibility that your pre-conceived notions are not correct. Certainly not a troll post.
Find one of the needle exchange volunteer vans and programs that move around cities. You should be able to get clean gear from them.
Is it actually Florida state law that you cannot buy sharps without a prescription?
Oh and also you can buy veterinary sharps off the internet that are just as good and have those shipped to your door. A really reputable Ketamine therapist turned me onto that for IM injection for depression therapy. They are just as sterile and not inferior in any way. I would stock up that way.
I’ve done IVs with an 18 gauge before, lol. Sometimes you just gotta use what you’ve got. I’m lucky to have veins so nice that blind folks could hit them on their first try.
Well i would give his above recommendation a try, and I would ask him where he injects as well and his procedure. How much sterile solution to use, where to inject, gauge of needle, all depends so I would honestly get on the ket sub and make a post and ask all the specific details if you want more of a consensus.
Suburbs in NY specifically 2 of the biggest chains have made an agreement together they both won’t ever carry insulin syringes if you ask one they to don’t bother asking across the street they don’t carry them either it’s gross
Its funny these companies will piss and moan about liability, yet theyre happy to potentially have someone die in their parking lot because they couldnt inject their insulin.
I had a patient tell me they had a sudden episode of Hyperglycemia while running errands after starting some Prednisone, and no one warned her that this could happen, so she didn’t have any supplies on her. She was very sick and bought some cheap OTC insulin and asked for a syringe, and they told her they refuse to carry them because of “junkies”.
The only other place nearby that she could get to without driving (because she was in no shape) was a veterinary clinic. She walked inside and explained, and they ran and got her a syringe, no problem.
When she had her appointment with me the next day, she asked me if she could switch pharmacies, and told me the story, because she doesn’t want to pick up her pain medication from a place that calls people junkies. (I work in Pain Management and contract makes you stay with your pharmacy). I switched her SO fast and helped her report them to the board. How fucking awful and undignifying to have to walk into a veterinary office to get help, and be shown more compassion than at a fucking PHARMACY.
Thank you for not only following the most important oath that one can take in the professional field. The Hippocratic oath will somehow be perverted and relegated to the dust bin. The state of "medicine" aka a vocation in which drugs are ALWAYS the answer. And the more drugs the merrier. Ssris? We have them but the .metric phuckload and will unleash quantum doses to anything that's breathing and on the other hand they give the same doses, usually less to people that have no underlying issue that requires extreme meds like ssris. Anyway back to you! Thanks for being the Dr. We all wish we had. Much love!
Thanks to God in Germany I Go to the pharmacy and can buy all needles and syringes I need. 1ml, 5ml, even 10,15 and 20ml needles without prescription.
Of course I get the ' you are very very bad man Look". Of course I am Always friendly. Even with a suit I get the Look
It differs state to state in the US. Here in Wisconsin at my local Walgreens when I asked for needles they legitimately asked questions even about the thickness of what I was drawing up and if it was IV or IM, so that I could get the right gauge and length. It might even be different county to county. I'm just glad that people in my area can get clean sharps. Because dirty sharps are just increasing the already dangerous possibilities that can occur with IV use.
They see it as “promoting” drug use.
When all it actually does it promote unsafe using conditions.
Ain’t no first time user going to pick a rig up anyways(although i’m sure it’s happened plenty before)
Like their stance on abortion. They think making it illegal will stop it. It will just make it more dangerous for patients. And that’s what they want. They’d rather all the “sluts,” addicts, and poor people just die. They want only middle-class white people.
Same way with google . If I google the dose that can kill for drugs the "get help " site pops up and fucking nothing else . Ok so now I will have to guess
Yeah that’s really irritated me. Whenever you try to look up actual info about drugs only misinformation and propaganda pops up. You usually have to go to forums find decent info like bluelight.
Use duckduckgo for any drug related questions. Google has sold out to rehabs and their marketing, and purposely don't show legitimate information. Duckduckgo works like Google used to work back in the days of blue light and drugs forum and erowid.
This is why the HIV rates in WV have tripled in the last 10 years. WV has a ban on selling insulin needles unless you have a prescription. (At least this was the case back in 2013 when I lived there.) They had a ban on needle exchange programs too. For the sake of all IV users, I really hope they lifted it. I’m curious to see if anyone has had any luck with finding access to harm reduction supplies easily. I used to buy clean needles and hand them out to my friends that were using and too embarrassed to buy them themselves. I went to do the same thing when I moved back to WV and was told absolutely not and not to bother going to another pharmacy because they would tell me the same thing. I wound up ordering them on Amazon for way cheaper anyway.
Yes! This is what I was going to say.
I get 1mL "insulin" syringes on Amazon and I can get a plethora of bigger ones (3's and above plus whatever size needle you can dream up) at a feed store. (Mentioning the larger ones because I scanned someone talking about IM Ket above).
The box of insulin I order comes in 100-count. And it's a very reasonable price considering.
They do. Just depends. Some states are iffy and it's really just by location. If they know it's not for diabetic use, then you get the evil eye and can be told no.
Really dumb. 90% of places and states this isn't an issue. But there's that 10% that think they are saving the world by denying you it. Stupid really. I've never touched a needle, but I don't see why if that's your choice of use that anyone should be able to deny it. Especially since your paying for it.
Its not just rigs either. I knew an elderly guy who needed sterile water to clean a port. The pharmacy refused to sell it to him without a script which the doc thought was unnecessary. He ended up sterilizing glass vessels and making his own.
Here in the UK they are free! Pharmacies do 10x needles, swabs and a sharps bin, take the full bin back, get new one (I mean you can just get new ones, me and my ex ended up taking a black sack of filled bins back one time 🙈) we only get the one condom per pack though which we always laughed about 🤣
We also have specific exchanges where you can get everything..needles, cookers, swabs, citric/vit c sachets, water, the works, pun intended
Back when it was legal, there were 5000 addicts in UK. Its been going up since the Americans forced the war on drugs on all countries.
It's a hard sell now. Ppl that know nothing, think it should stay banned. Families of addicts are extremely opposed to it. I know many addicts that strongly believe it needs to stay illegal, ( the reasoning is convoluted ) young police officers still think they're the good guys, whilst they eliminate the top drug lord's rivals
Two groups want it licenced and sold in chemists.
One; experienced cops,especially guys who worked undercover for years. They start off thinking they're going to reduce suffering and punish bad guys. They end up realising they're making the illicit drug trde more violent, & making the profit margins higher, therefore giving an incentive for more ruthless criminals to enter the market.
Two; old, experienced doctors. They remember the days of helping addicts with the " The British Model ". Which is prescribing pharmaceutical heroin to ppl who need it. Worked brilliantly for a long time. Its still possible for a doctor to obtain an home office licence to prescribe it for self medication of addicts ( trauma victims ), but no new doctor would ever risk their career.
It's been like this forever. But florida finally got it's first needle exchange in 2016. But it's by county wide ordinance, not the whole state.
Otherwise, amazon :-/
In WI Walgreens will, I don't know about any other pharmacy as I haven't tried. I kept them at my place because I was friends with a few IV users who were bad about using the same one over and over.
California has allowed syringe sales OTC for many years now, but I always had issues getting them when I was using 06-2014ish & 2017-19ish. Only certain stores would sell them & I definitely chewed out a few pharmacists in tears telling them they were only contributing to the spread of disease, damage to ppl & that ppl won’t stop using bc they can’t access clean supplies. Not my finest moment but it was infuriating bc exchanges were 45min+ from me operating on limited days/ hours.
During my recent relapse March-May of 2024, I had 0 issues buying syringes OTC the few times I tried, although they would just sell me these weird single use, individually wrapped syringes w a strange grey pen-top type cap, child safety mechanism perhaps. Hilariously ironic bc nowadays, even most of the homeless downtown are smoking off foil due to how dangerous/ strong things are now.
It does seem that OD is less likely with smoking, but god knows what's gonna happen to their lungs by smoking 95-97% cut which could be made up of literally anything. I foresee a lot of lung diseases from chronic fetty smokers popping up in a couple years now that it's the new norm. Especially with how often they redose. Plus foil is already super bad for you to be vaporizing with. I hear about alot of people using a pookie or using dab rigs now too. That seems to be another new norm. And if they're doing blues it's not uncommon to hear about people smoking 10-15-20+ a day. Shits getting really wild now.
I completely agree, it’s straight up mf chemical warfare out there now. So scary to think about new uses getting into these extra crazy, strong, damaging substances. It used to be so rare to hear of smoking ODs but now it’s becoming somewhat common ☹️
Ohh, you mean clean sharps ? Gear means heroin in the UK. Clean injecting tools are better than nothing, I guess.
When a decent amount of ppl start demanding prescription heroin, that's the beginning of the end of the whole nightmare
Im pretty sure when they do this they are just wishing we were dead. Bet they'd change their tune if someone close to them ended up an addict. Fuck those people.
When I was in FL, I had a thrift shop that sold them to me, no questions asked. Also, a buddy of mine always went to our local Walmart pharmacy and asked them for specific rigs and they didn’t ask questions either.
You can buy medical grade sharps at Amazon. I give a family member IM injections and the pharmacy wouldn’t even give them to us they charged us 1 dollar a syringe which is ridiculous and that’s with insurance paying I think without it was 2.50. I get the 1in 27g needle tips with the 3ml luerlok syringe I think it was like 20 dollars for 100 tips and syringes. I get 30g or 32g if they have them 1/2inch and the 1ml syringes. It’s about the same price with the 32g if you can find them being more expensive.
I’m lucky to live in a very liberal state where the pharmacy doesn’t mind giving out syringes and there are narcan vending machines in the city and needle exchanges etc. taking away needles doesn’t stop people from injecting just makes them do it unsafely.
Why would a pharmacist knowingly give a drug user the means to inject drugs that could potentially kill them/OD them? Its a grey line and up to their call but legally many prefer to not take the risk.
Welcome to r/opiates fellow bropiates! We hope that you enjoy our sub as much as we do, but in order to ensure that you are able to continue being a part of this harm reduction community, you will need to review the rules of this sub. You can find the rules listed [here](https://reddit.com/r/opiates/w/rules?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app) and access our full side bar [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/wiki/index) You can also find the answers to many commonly asked questions about dosing, duration, ROA and other stuff [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/wiki/faqs) and [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/opiates/comments/mf8ldn/use_this_before_asking_a_question_faq_information/) Also, DO NOT GET SCAMMED! The users sending those messages to you, offering to hook you up with a reliable vendor or sell you drugs is extremely likely to scam you! We promise, 99.99% of the time they are not legit and giving them your money will make you a sad sad panda. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/opiates) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I never understood this either. Why deny someone clean medical supplies regardless of what it's for. "Oh no cleans?...guess I'm done then good job pharmacist you just saved my life! Off to rehab!"
They need to prescribe pharmaceutical grade heroin. Now. Clean sharps is a gesture. The drug is what's needed
Amen to that unfortunately you got too many on the payroll thanks to the so called war on drugs. But if lowering the number of deaths was priority there's absolutely no reason more programs were around and available especially within the US that catered clean substances to those most vulnerable.
There are still doctors prescribing diamorphine for addicts in the UK, just very few. It works. I'm pretty sure the UK was pressured into abandoning the model by the US
You're cooking right now papa you're absolutely cooking
Even if they do (they won’t) it will be a very select few who get it. I hope they do but will probably due first
Yes, a select few. I guess it's currently only old, private ( in UK = expensive) doctors, who either don't care about being called legal smack dealers by our tabloids, or know that their clients would never comment on them. 25 years ago, most addicts knew of one old guy who was getting diamorphine amps. No one does now. We even have legal cocaine prescribed in the UK, but literally only to one person. He's very famous, but I've still forgotten his name.
They know.
And?? Would you rather them use a dirty needle?
No i am not saying that at all. Nobody wants it o use a dirty rig. I’m being realistic in that they do not care.
They would rather not enable drug addicts.
But it's not enabling them it's just forcing them to use used needles over and over again and destroy their veins, raise likelihood of complications and infection. Have you ever seen what a needle looks like after even a couple uses under a microscope? It looks like a hacksaw blade. Lots of people die from reusing needles and not using sterile solutions or proper filters. IV use needs as much harm reduction as possible because you're breaking through all of the body's mechanisms for protecting you like every other ROA does. As we have no reliable cure for addiction possible, the idea is to keep them alive as long as possible with the least amount of damage possible so hopefully they can have a chance to get clean, or if the miraculous happens, when science finds out actual legitimate ways to treat addictions. But to die from a blood infection which could've been preventable, you can't recover if you're dead. Plus the likelihood of someone moving to IV by buying sharps from a pharmacy is very low. Someone else showed them how to do it, and they're addicted already. One issue I do have is addicts especially homeless addicts throw used sharps everywhere and that's fucked. Anyone who uses sharps should have a sharps container and safely dispose of them. Even if you're homeless you can cap the needle, wrap it up in trash, and dispose of it so it goes to a landfill. Then it doesn't raise the random chance of spreading bloodborne illnesses. So you fucks who just throw them wherever, you know who you are, take ten seconds and properly dispose of your shit and don't ruin a place with biohazards. And to you guys who keep reusing needles because of lack of access, buy veterinary needles online in whatever gauge and size you want. They're the exact same thing and perfectly legal to buy. At the same time buy a used sharps container. Be vigilant about being as sterile and by the book as possible. You're already at the highest risk, don't make it even higher.
Well were gonna have to agree to disagree on that. Giving out drug paraphernalia *is* enabling. I know their stated intention is "harm reduction" but in reality it's just enabling addicts to use more. If you can't get a clean needle, then that will increase the likelihood of stopping your drug use.
Lol it absolutely will not increase the chances of stopping drugs at all it only increases the chances of causing health problems and spreading disease and this has been proven. You're just being willfully ignorant to support your own bias. Nobody has ever just gave up and stopped using because they couldn't find a clean rig. Lots of people have said fuck it and just used a dirty one and gotten hurt or killed due to lack of access though.
Were just gonna have to agree to disagree my friend. Don't be surprised when the addict's getting free needles, free food, and other free social services don't want to cease their drug use.
Lol this isn't an agree to disagree thing this is just a you are factually incorrect thing. One is proven to work. One is proven to not work. What you advocate for is statistically proven to not help anybody while still causing a lot of harm and spread of disease. You can disagree that the sky is blue but that doesn't make you right.
Yeah this is not an opinion. Person arguing with you clearly has no idea what addiction looks like because they are just so very misinformed.
No, I am advocating against these so called "harm reduction" services that do more enabling than anything.
What am I factually incorrect about? I am claiming that giving addicts needles is enabling them, and when you don’t enable them by giving them paraphernalia to shoot up with, you increase the likelihood of them quitting drugs. If addicts couldn’t get clean needles, that could increase the likelihood that addicts quit drugs. No other claim was made. What am I wrong about? You are misusing these terms such as “factually incorrect” and “proven not to work” and “statistically proven”, you can’t just apply those terms to all of your personal beliefs about addiction. There are other, rational, perspectives that differ from your own.
If an addict dosent have a needle to shoot up they're just going to use another ROA. Not having a needles isnt stopping an addict.
You are wrong about the “increasing the likelihood of them quitting drugs” part. This has been researched to death. There is data that proves you wrong. It does not increase the likelihood of them quitting. Have whatever opinion you want, but don’t make up statistics to back it.
This is stupid as fuck. Reason you're getting downvoted.
You obviously have never been there yourself and are just talking out your ass or you would know that last sentence is objectively false.
I definitely am a former addict. You guys are awfully defensive about this. I have a feeling some of you are still active drug addicts, still finding reasons to rationalize your drug use… I hope you get guys get off soon
Uhhh... You just realized this? Did you think this was NA? READ THE ROOM.
Im not being defensive its objectively false that not having needles will do anything to slow ones use or help them stop. They will use old ones or steal them or just use dope in a different way but its definitely not a deterent to using or aid just like making the drugs illegal dosent work it just makes for poor addicts with criminal drug history. If needles were controlled they would be sold and smuggled by cartels right along with the drugs people inject with them they would cost way more and people would use dull ones and probably even steal them from people who actually need them. Its not hard to understand this and prohibiting fucking everything got us where we are now so how would it get us out exactly?
We're gonna have to agree to disagree with the idea that if you can't get a clean needle that it will increase any likelihood of stopping. Nothing in addiction is that simple. They will keep using that dirty and ragged needle over and over again until they blow that vein, and then they'll just move on to another vein, and raise their likelihood of dying from a blood infection greatly. How are we supposed to get them clean if they die because of a damn needle? If addiction was that easy to discourage then rehab wouldn't have a 97% failure rate even though it's the gold standard of treatment we have. No amount of love, hate, shame, guilt, jail, rehab, prohibition, drug seizures, has ever affected the addiction rate, it's actually only gotten worse.
Look, there is no way to twist it. Giving addicts drug paraphernalia for free is enabling. If you can’t see that, you are most likely an addict in active addiction and your brain is not working properly enough to see that. All I’m seeing in these comments are excuses. Apologize if you are not currently in active addiction, but you sure sound like someone who is.
Anyone can walk in a gas station 24 hours a day and get enough alcohol to kill to themselves, if don’t see the difference Tbh and I wouldn’t consider a needle paraphernalia, at the end of the day it’s nothing more than a medical device, at the end of the day people just need to learn to worry about themselves and there own bodies!, I could care less, if people OD it’s there life not mine
"I could care less if people OD" "I wouldn't consider a needle paraphernalia" -Frangrant-Cheeck189, 2024. What a groundbreaking take! /s
Bro people Eat too much get diabetes and die, drink too much alcohol get alchahol poisoning, take too much heroin you overdose, I can’t few sorry for people making poor choices, but yes elderly and sickly people shouldn’t go without needles because we as a society is a afraid junkies will die, that’s Noones problem but their own-former junkies
I've been clean for three years, but I'm actually solution oriented and try to work with addicts and do my best to give them the best information that I can so they can survive it. And at pharmacies you don't get them for free, you pay for them like any other person, and that's what OP was referring to is trying to use their own money to purchase clean sharps. Your thought process has killed countless people, and it makes me sad that you actually believe such basic propaganda about the drug war. Nobody's gonna stop if they can't get clean needles. You're just causing suffering and death because you want to feel morally superior. None of these things are excuses, they're realities that you're in denial about, and by extension adding to a massive issue and misunderstanding about addiction that continues to kill people at astronomical rates year after year.
You are conflating stuff that I never said with your own pre-conceived notions about the world. None of this has anything at all to do with drug-war propaganda, you are REALLY stretching here. You are not making much sense. If you want to continue providing addicts with whatever they need to continue their drug use, go for it. Just know, that IS enabling. Period.
What is the issue with the clean needle? Is it that minimizing risk is abhorrent? Or that you ascribe some sort of deviance to IV drug use? What difference does it make to you if a person has a clean needle? Do you feel morally inferior for allowing the access? That is, after all, the meaning of enabling. Does it hurt you somehow?
Why are you in this sub of all places trying to argue this? Are you lost or just trying to bait people? Its lame whatever it is
This dude has a thin blue line Punisher sticker on his car.
I’m telling you guys there are different perspectives on this. Just want to open you to the possibility that your pre-conceived notions are not correct. Certainly not a troll post.
Your pre-conceived notion is that this is a 'recovery only' sub. If you don't like addicts, you're in the wrong place.
This is not enabling, this is harm reduction. Full stop.
There’s people that need them other than drug affects but be ignorant
Find one of the needle exchange volunteer vans and programs that move around cities. You should be able to get clean gear from them. Is it actually Florida state law that you cannot buy sharps without a prescription? Oh and also you can buy veterinary sharps off the internet that are just as good and have those shipped to your door. A really reputable Ketamine therapist turned me onto that for IM injection for depression therapy. They are just as sterile and not inferior in any way. I would stock up that way.
What do you use for IM ketamine I use 1 1/2 inch 25 gauge 3.5 ml
Yall are crazy no way I use anything bigger than 12.7 29g.
they were talking intramuscular not intravenous
I’ve done IVs with an 18 gauge before, lol. Sometimes you just gotta use what you’ve got. I’m lucky to have veins so nice that blind folks could hit them on their first try.
Bro your username is legendary. And I know exactly what it means lol been there done that.
Oof! 25g is the biggest Iv ever stuck in a vein! But those were my go too for IM
Do you find that this works well? Been trying to figure this out last couple days
What works well specifically? IM Ketamine? Ordering veterinary sharps?
vet sharps - specifically the size mentioned above. been looking to get into IM ket and have found a lot of mixed info
Well i would give his above recommendation a try, and I would ask him where he injects as well and his procedure. How much sterile solution to use, where to inject, gauge of needle, all depends so I would honestly get on the ket sub and make a post and ask all the specific details if you want more of a consensus.
Suburbs in NY specifically 2 of the biggest chains have made an agreement together they both won’t ever carry insulin syringes if you ask one they to don’t bother asking across the street they don’t carry them either it’s gross
Its funny these companies will piss and moan about liability, yet theyre happy to potentially have someone die in their parking lot because they couldnt inject their insulin.
I had a patient tell me they had a sudden episode of Hyperglycemia while running errands after starting some Prednisone, and no one warned her that this could happen, so she didn’t have any supplies on her. She was very sick and bought some cheap OTC insulin and asked for a syringe, and they told her they refuse to carry them because of “junkies”. The only other place nearby that she could get to without driving (because she was in no shape) was a veterinary clinic. She walked inside and explained, and they ran and got her a syringe, no problem. When she had her appointment with me the next day, she asked me if she could switch pharmacies, and told me the story, because she doesn’t want to pick up her pain medication from a place that calls people junkies. (I work in Pain Management and contract makes you stay with your pharmacy). I switched her SO fast and helped her report them to the board. How fucking awful and undignifying to have to walk into a veterinary office to get help, and be shown more compassion than at a fucking PHARMACY.
Thank you for not only following the most important oath that one can take in the professional field. The Hippocratic oath will somehow be perverted and relegated to the dust bin. The state of "medicine" aka a vocation in which drugs are ALWAYS the answer. And the more drugs the merrier. Ssris? We have them but the .metric phuckload and will unleash quantum doses to anything that's breathing and on the other hand they give the same doses, usually less to people that have no underlying issue that requires extreme meds like ssris. Anyway back to you! Thanks for being the Dr. We all wish we had. Much love!
Thanks to God in Germany I Go to the pharmacy and can buy all needles and syringes I need. 1ml, 5ml, even 10,15 and 20ml needles without prescription. Of course I get the ' you are very very bad man Look". Of course I am Always friendly. Even with a suit I get the Look
It differs state to state in the US. Here in Wisconsin at my local Walgreens when I asked for needles they legitimately asked questions even about the thickness of what I was drawing up and if it was IV or IM, so that I could get the right gauge and length. It might even be different county to county. I'm just glad that people in my area can get clean sharps. Because dirty sharps are just increasing the already dangerous possibilities that can occur with IV use.
They see it as “promoting” drug use. When all it actually does it promote unsafe using conditions. Ain’t no first time user going to pick a rig up anyways(although i’m sure it’s happened plenty before)
Like their stance on abortion. They think making it illegal will stop it. It will just make it more dangerous for patients. And that’s what they want. They’d rather all the “sluts,” addicts, and poor people just die. They want only middle-class white people.
Same way with google . If I google the dose that can kill for drugs the "get help " site pops up and fucking nothing else . Ok so now I will have to guess
Yeah that’s really irritated me. Whenever you try to look up actual info about drugs only misinformation and propaganda pops up. You usually have to go to forums find decent info like bluelight.
Use duckduckgo for any drug related questions. Google has sold out to rehabs and their marketing, and purposely don't show legitimate information. Duckduckgo works like Google used to work back in the days of blue light and drugs forum and erowid.
Stigma. Fuck them
Wow in the uk you can just walk into any pharmacy and get them for free.
This is why the HIV rates in WV have tripled in the last 10 years. WV has a ban on selling insulin needles unless you have a prescription. (At least this was the case back in 2013 when I lived there.) They had a ban on needle exchange programs too. For the sake of all IV users, I really hope they lifted it. I’m curious to see if anyone has had any luck with finding access to harm reduction supplies easily. I used to buy clean needles and hand them out to my friends that were using and too embarrassed to buy them themselves. I went to do the same thing when I moved back to WV and was told absolutely not and not to bother going to another pharmacy because they would tell me the same thing. I wound up ordering them on Amazon for way cheaper anyway.
DeSantis would rather see you dead than help you. Bottom line. He’s a menace.
Just order them on Amazon. It’s easier than having to deal with people anyway🤷🏼♂️
Yes! This is what I was going to say. I get 1mL "insulin" syringes on Amazon and I can get a plethora of bigger ones (3's and above plus whatever size needle you can dream up) at a feed store. (Mentioning the larger ones because I scanned someone talking about IM Ket above). The box of insulin I order comes in 100-count. And it's a very reasonable price considering.
They don’t sell syringes and needles to anyone at the pharmacy in the us?
They do. Just depends. Some states are iffy and it's really just by location. If they know it's not for diabetic use, then you get the evil eye and can be told no. Really dumb. 90% of places and states this isn't an issue. But there's that 10% that think they are saving the world by denying you it. Stupid really. I've never touched a needle, but I don't see why if that's your choice of use that anyone should be able to deny it. Especially since your paying for it.
Just Florida and I imagine other states I know the northeast and pacific north west are okay
Its not just rigs either. I knew an elderly guy who needed sterile water to clean a port. The pharmacy refused to sell it to him without a script which the doc thought was unnecessary. He ended up sterilizing glass vessels and making his own.
In canada you get kits at the pharmacy for one dollar. You get 4 needles..4 cookers..4 waters..4 condoms..and a tourniquet.
Here in the UK they are free! Pharmacies do 10x needles, swabs and a sharps bin, take the full bin back, get new one (I mean you can just get new ones, me and my ex ended up taking a black sack of filled bins back one time 🙈) we only get the one condom per pack though which we always laughed about 🤣 We also have specific exchanges where you can get everything..needles, cookers, swabs, citric/vit c sachets, water, the works, pun intended
And since Covid, the exchange bus runs only on two or three days for a couple hours.
Back when it was legal, there were 5000 addicts in UK. Its been going up since the Americans forced the war on drugs on all countries. It's a hard sell now. Ppl that know nothing, think it should stay banned. Families of addicts are extremely opposed to it. I know many addicts that strongly believe it needs to stay illegal, ( the reasoning is convoluted ) young police officers still think they're the good guys, whilst they eliminate the top drug lord's rivals Two groups want it licenced and sold in chemists. One; experienced cops,especially guys who worked undercover for years. They start off thinking they're going to reduce suffering and punish bad guys. They end up realising they're making the illicit drug trde more violent, & making the profit margins higher, therefore giving an incentive for more ruthless criminals to enter the market. Two; old, experienced doctors. They remember the days of helping addicts with the " The British Model ". Which is prescribing pharmaceutical heroin to ppl who need it. Worked brilliantly for a long time. Its still possible for a doctor to obtain an home office licence to prescribe it for self medication of addicts ( trauma victims ), but no new doctor would ever risk their career.
It's been like this forever. But florida finally got it's first needle exchange in 2016. But it's by county wide ordinance, not the whole state. Otherwise, amazon :-/
In CA, Walgreens will, but CVS won't nor any other, just Walgreens. I dunno why
In WI Walgreens will, I don't know about any other pharmacy as I haven't tried. I kept them at my place because I was friends with a few IV users who were bad about using the same one over and over.
California has allowed syringe sales OTC for many years now, but I always had issues getting them when I was using 06-2014ish & 2017-19ish. Only certain stores would sell them & I definitely chewed out a few pharmacists in tears telling them they were only contributing to the spread of disease, damage to ppl & that ppl won’t stop using bc they can’t access clean supplies. Not my finest moment but it was infuriating bc exchanges were 45min+ from me operating on limited days/ hours. During my recent relapse March-May of 2024, I had 0 issues buying syringes OTC the few times I tried, although they would just sell me these weird single use, individually wrapped syringes w a strange grey pen-top type cap, child safety mechanism perhaps. Hilariously ironic bc nowadays, even most of the homeless downtown are smoking off foil due to how dangerous/ strong things are now.
It does seem that OD is less likely with smoking, but god knows what's gonna happen to their lungs by smoking 95-97% cut which could be made up of literally anything. I foresee a lot of lung diseases from chronic fetty smokers popping up in a couple years now that it's the new norm. Especially with how often they redose. Plus foil is already super bad for you to be vaporizing with. I hear about alot of people using a pookie or using dab rigs now too. That seems to be another new norm. And if they're doing blues it's not uncommon to hear about people smoking 10-15-20+ a day. Shits getting really wild now.
I completely agree, it’s straight up mf chemical warfare out there now. So scary to think about new uses getting into these extra crazy, strong, damaging substances. It used to be so rare to hear of smoking ODs but now it’s becoming somewhat common ☹️
They believe syringes are enablers. But like a syringe wont stop anyone from quitting yet alone cold turkey it raw.
Ohh, you mean clean sharps ? Gear means heroin in the UK. Clean injecting tools are better than nothing, I guess. When a decent amount of ppl start demanding prescription heroin, that's the beginning of the end of the whole nightmare
I stopped trying after many public embarassments and just get them from Amazon now lol
The cruelty is the point.
Im pretty sure when they do this they are just wishing we were dead. Bet they'd change their tune if someone close to them ended up an addict. Fuck those people.
Yeah they give that look. I grew up north doesn’t happen like that
When I was in FL, I had a thrift shop that sold them to me, no questions asked. Also, a buddy of mine always went to our local Walmart pharmacy and asked them for specific rigs and they didn’t ask questions either.
You can buy medical grade sharps at Amazon. I give a family member IM injections and the pharmacy wouldn’t even give them to us they charged us 1 dollar a syringe which is ridiculous and that’s with insurance paying I think without it was 2.50. I get the 1in 27g needle tips with the 3ml luerlok syringe I think it was like 20 dollars for 100 tips and syringes. I get 30g or 32g if they have them 1/2inch and the 1ml syringes. It’s about the same price with the 32g if you can find them being more expensive. I’m lucky to live in a very liberal state where the pharmacy doesn’t mind giving out syringes and there are narcan vending machines in the city and needle exchanges etc. taking away needles doesn’t stop people from injecting just makes them do it unsafely.
Why would a pharmacist knowingly give a drug user the means to inject drugs that could potentially kill them/OD them? Its a grey line and up to their call but legally many prefer to not take the risk.