So today is the day. The day fedex finally dropped off my PG, VG, nic, and flavorings so I can begin my adventure into DIY. Only one small issue - I forgot syringes and the only one I had the ml markings rubbed off.
I head to walmart to see if I can find something that will work. A 20ml oral syringe is the only one they had, and it was only in 1ml increments. Well that won't work.
In the town I live my options are slim, so the next place I go is CVS Pharmacy. I wonder around for about 10 mins until I find 5 and 10ml syringes with half ml increments. Only problem is that I need more precise measurements. I figure that rather than looking around for an hour I should just ask the pharmacist. I walk up to the counter with about 10 customers waiting around and ask the pharmacist if they have any 1-3ml syringes with 1/10 to 1/4ml increments.
The pharmacist stares at me for a second with a weird and concerned look on his face. He tells me to hold on and goes behind the counter. He comes back with 5 tiny 1ml syringes and some needles and hands them to me. "Is that going to be enough?" he asks. I was thrilled that they even had them and told him "that should be more than enough to get me started!" He tells me that if I ever need any more I could come back and he would give me as many as I need. Then he says "I just want you to be safe."
As I walk out the customers waiting all give me dirty looks. It doesn't strike me until I get out to my car that it was weird he gave me needles. I didn't ask for any blunt tip because I happen to have some, but now I realize what he thought when I walked in there asking for syringes. He thought I was shooting up, and so did everyone that saw the exchange.
Moral of the story: CVS has free 1ml syringes, but they will think your an addict if you go in asking for them like I did.
Haha the part where you replied with a smile: "that should be more than enough to get me started!"
Cracked me up :P If I were the pharmacy guy I would have been like: "wait what ? to get you started ?!"
"Oh boy! I just can't wait to start slamming dope! Thanks a lot, mister!"
Whistle whistle whistle.
Golly gee whiz mister! This should be more than enough to get me riding that dragon! Toodleloo!!
Totally read that in Moral Orel voice
That was the worst part. I can only imagine what was going through his head when I said that!
Protip go to a farm supply store. They have all sizes for veterinarian purposes.
Keep going back to the same pharmacy and dress really nice every time, like you're getting more successful the more heroin you do
Not trying to sound like a dick, but people shouldn't take those free syringes. They're there for people with drug problems to get safe needles, and we shouldn't abuse it by getting free syringes for mixing. You're already saving so much money DIYing, do you really need syringes for free?
Oh I completely agree. I was asking where they were located so I could buy one off the shelf. I had no intent of getting free syringes and didn't even think about them being given out to drug users until it was too late.
This wasn't directed to just you, but everyone that may have been unaware of this and sees the post.
They are pennies a piece in bulk, retail. 5 cents worth isn't hurting their supply of 10's of thousands. They are cheap enough to just buy a huge amount that will last a lifetime, but it isn't hurting needle exchange programs or free needles for addicts. It probably cost them more in wages to sell you a few than to just give them to you. They sell bricks of em for diabetics for a few dollars if you need that many.
Or just get a scale.
Whether or not you think it will affect needle exchanges, you made my point in your first sentence. They're pennies a piece, do you really need to get them for free and potentially affect a great service?
I'm sure that if you told them what they are for they would give them to you anyway. I'm sure OP wanted to buy them, but the pharmacist just said here ya go, take em. Maybe he'd assume you are telling stories, it just wouldn't be worth his time either way.
Yes, buy them. If the pharmacy just gives them to you, should you argue over 5 cents?
he said he didn't realize til he was in his car. i think at that point most people would just say fuck it. but yeah i still agree.
You should try asking for syringes and Citric Acid.
My local Pharmacist (right word?) told me that Lemon juice would work as well as Citric Acid. Just like you, it only strike me when I was almost home.
what's the citric acid/lemon juice for? cheap sanitization?
TIL that brown heroin won't break down under heat into a state suitable for injection. Introducing citric acid forms a citrate salt and it will then be workable.
Source: Some junkie on a forum after I googled this question.
Sanitiziation? pfft naw, I need that Lemony tart punch right in my veins.
The claim that plain lemon juice "works just as well" is actually shitty advice as citric acid is a 99.9x% pure substance while the other one is an acidic mix of organic sludge and god knows what.
Yes the junkies that are literally melting a substance so they can inject it are going to be worried about the extra shit in the lemon.
> Yes the junkies that are literally melting a substance so they can inject it are going to be worried about the extra shit in the lemo
Junkies who don't give a shit about harm reduction are usually among those that die first. Those who do follow safety guidelines raise their chances of living long enough to quit.
I've had pharmacies straight up refuse to sell them to me when forgetting to buy enough of them. Sadly, it's their choice whether to sell them to a customer or not, and on those days, all I walked out with was dirty looks from the staff and customers :(
I ordered menthol crystals from ebay once, picking the cheapest supplier I could find. A week later, an envelope showed up in my mailbox with no return address and my name/address written in block letters. Unsure of what it was, I opened it and a baggie with white crystals fell out on the sidewalk. In the middle of a subdivision. With people walking their dogs/mowing their lawns all around me.
That, the fact that I work from home, and the fact that I ship out 1 to 3 ounce packages by the dozen every day (I run a LEGO parts store out of the house) have contributed to why neighbors all thought I was some kind of drug dealer where I used to live.
What did you do for work from home? I'm trying to get out of retail work, and I'd like to know how to get started and what to do to actually make a living wage off of working from home.
I really appreciate any advice
My wife and I are hardcore AFOL's (Adult fans of LEGO). She was big into the Harry Potter LEGO sets when they were out, and when they were discontinued I searched for places to get the sets secondhand. One of those searches led me to Bricklink, which is the largest online LEGO marketplace, with around 7,000 stores that do just what we do (although most do it on a smaller scale). I realized that with our LEGO knowledge we could grow it into a way to fund our hobby, and that grew into something so big that we had to quit our jobs to keep up.
My wife and I buy 100-200 pounds of used LEGO collections on eBay per month, which represents anywhere from 30,000 to 70,000 pieces. We then sort out the stuff that isn't quite perfect, and that is either donated to various charities or is used for festivals. The best stuff gets put online in our Bricklink store, where people can come and browse our 70,000 or so parts and add whatever parts they'd like to their cart, and buy only the pieces they actually need (versus buying a big set with a lot of stuff they don't even want).
We have full inventory turnover every 45 days or so, meaning we're sending out well over 1000 pieces a day. It pays enough so that my wife and I can both go to college full time to get our Masters degrees, and we each spend about four hours a day working on it. To get there, however, we had a LOT of days where we used to spend as much as 12-15 hour days several times a week growing it. It isn't an easy thing to start, but it's finally to a point where we can breathe a bit.
I'm actually a pharmacist who does DIY, so I just want to make a comment for everybody here.
Not every pharmacy, not every CVS, will give out free syringes. It's completely up to the pharmacist whether or not to even sell you syringes, much less give you them for free. Even if you have a prescription no pharmacist is obligated to provide them for you. I've just seen lots of misinformation out there about it, like the line in OP's post.
That said, I always give or sell syringes to anybody who asks. I have worked with people who have required prescriptions before though. This is entirely YMMV territory.
In NY they have too sell even without prescription 10 per day! no questions asked! saw a junkie get some like it was candy! dude was all scratchy and nervous.
If you're asserting that a private business is required to provide service, I'm gonna need to see a source.
I could, I don't but I could, tell any individual who walks into my store that I refuse to serve them for no reason whatsoever.
Free is free ... no shame from the dirty/awkward looks. I mean whatever helps you save money right?
Hey, I was in a pinch and needed to get started on that banana cream clone that bombiesspy put out.
Those farm and tractor supply stores have tons of syringes with large guage needles. Most of them are under a dollar.
I was looking for syringes when I first started and went to a drug store. Im a welder and have little burn marks all over my arms. When I asked for syringes they told me that even if they carried them they wouldn't sell me anything with a needle.
I forgot who said it but if you put scotch tape over the measurements, they won't rub off...no more pharmacy trips!
Post Script: Fuck those judge-y fucks for their dirty looks. If you actually were a user, you'd've been a responsible one.
Post Post Script: I roflcopter'd out of my seat at "this should get me started."
Well as of today I won't be needing syringes for my DIY as I got my scale yesterday and will be doing my juice by weight from now on. I will be using pipettes until I can get some of those twist top caps for my flavor extract bottles. Flavor West sells them but their out of stock at the moment.
I wrote "FOR EJUICE ONLY" on my bag of syringes.
Even though they are blunt, 15g tips, people still dont fucking think. Also doesnt help that I live on a college campus. Gotta make sure the RA doesnt get the wrong idea when they check my room
They will think you inject freebase nicotine-juice into your veins using blunt needles.
Similar thing happened to me! I asked the Walmart pharmacist if they sold syringes in this area. She then came around from behind the counter with a syringe in her hand. I said "Oh no no, thank you, but I'm needing a WHOLE lot more than one" The elderly people in line stared at me with a deep disappointment in my generation.
I've been the customer waiting in line before when someone actually did approach the counter for free needles, for recreation.
I wasn't disgusted, just kind of sad for them. I'm glad pharmacies do this. Some may call it enabling, but I don't. Sure beats spreading more Hep and HIV.
i dont need syringes, but i think im gonna try this today :P
Don't abuse a worthwhile and important service, please.
Pretty sure the problem isn't the cost of syringes, it's the manpower and cost of distribution.
They don't only just offer free needles at places like that. Some programs will go out and find addicts/homeless and are very proactive. That's the expensive part - just getting the word out, getting them out to the public. The syringes themselves can cost 1 cent to 5 cents each.
I mean, of course it seems a little shady, but if you even just donated one buck after getting free needles, you've more than covered the expense. Better yet, get the free syringes then go out and help one weekend.
Dude, when I first started I went into Rite Aid and asked; the pharmacist told me I needed a prescription for needles. In Ohio I guess you need to be a diabetic.
You mean you don't have a heroin prescription? Fucking pleb.
I call this recipe the "skittishninja":
8% TFA Honey
5% Heroin
Shake & inject. Also works great if you have the flu or scurvy.
I once gave myself scurvy during my bachelor days. I was only eating ramen and drinking bud light/4loko, and one day I just couldn't couldn't get out of bed one day. My everything was sore and aching, and I had like no energy. You've never had lower self-esteem than when you figure out that your're so unhealthy that you've given yourself scurvy.
That is too funny...at least the pharmacist is a good guy looking out for the well being of those who aren't DIY'ers just needing them to measure. Good to know there are people that believe in harm reduction which applies in so many more areas aside from illicit drug use.
I had the opposite experience at a Walgreens when I first started out. I was looking for syringes and blunt-tip needles. I couldn't find any in the store, so I asked the pharmacist. I got a dirty look, a shitty attitude, and a response that it was illegal to sell them to me without a prescription (which I knew was bullshit).
I went home and ordered them from Amazon. Got hundreds of them in different sizes with free Prime shipping and stopped visiting that judgemental-ass Walgreens. I now go to CVS or the grocery store for things I used to get there, and have probably cost them tens of dollars in the last couple of years.
i used to work in the pharmacy counter at cvs, and this guy walked in and asked me for some syringes and the bathroom keycode, then leaned forward abd whispered "i gotta shoot up, yaknow im sayin?" so i told him that i cant give him the syringes unless it's for medical use and shit like that. he told me i dont know how to have fun and left.