[QUOTE=Dennis Miller]
“I’m not pro-drug, they obviously cause a lot of damage, but I am pro-logic and you’re never going to stop the human need for release through altered consciousness. The government can take away all the drugs in the world and people will just spin around on their lawn until they fell down and saw God.”
[/QUOTE]
Syringe laws vary. A prescription is only needed in a couple of US jurisdictions, but you could be charged with drug paraphernalia if you also have cotton, burnt spoons, etc on you…
I’m into play piercing and have a medical fetish so I have various medical supplies and I’ve never had a problem getting them. eBay always has some. If they see something thats prescription only like insulin infusion sets adminstration will pull it if they find out, but anything nonprescription they leave up.
It’s often advantagious to get a prescription for something that doesn’t require it because that is the only way medical insurance in the US will cover it.
How can a syringe expire? I wouldn’t imagine there would be measurable deterioration in 1000 years.
Maybe most of the people who’ve tried insulin to get high have knocked themselves out of the gene pool before they could report their experiences.
Love how this thread has united the druggies and the diabetics in a great big wtf. As a former recreational drug user, now diabetic my first reaction to the question was also “because hypoglycemia is shit!”. I was on a medication thatturned out not to suit me, which caused my blood sugar to fall toward hypoglycemia if I wasn’t careful about when I ate. I don’t remember anything enjoyable or edgy about the prehypoglycemic state either.
Yeah, great big WTF on this one.
Sterility is what has the expiration date. The plastic/metal stays solid till the universe goes away.
What? From what I’ve read, diabetics and non-diabetics alike experience about the same thing when they’re hypoglycemic. It’s not a heightened state, unless you count full blown panic mode as a heightened state. It’s not at all fun.
I could understand someone TRYING it, but I sure wouldn’t understand someone repeating it for pleasure.
Now, I’ve heard that body builders will use insulin somehow. I’m not sure how and I wasn’t really interested enough to ask the doctor about it (we were discussing my insulin needs when the subject came up).
I think that doctors (and any real doctors might correct me if I’m wrong) write prescriptions for insulin in order to get insurance to cover it, and to make sure that the patient is taking the correct dosage at the correct times.
yes, some insulin can be purchased over the counter, and so can syringes around these parts, at the pharmacist’s discretion. as for the OP’s question, it’s because, as many have pointed out, there is absolutely nothing about a hypoglycemic episode that makes one say “whoa, that was kinda cool.” you can get a better high from cold medication. put me down as another WTF.
The prescription sticker says to discard after a certain date. I imagine the issue is guaranteed sterility. I don’t seem to have infected myself with anything, and I’m guessing that that date is pretty conservative, but I see my doctor next week so I’ll ask him about it and get a new prescription if necessary. Maybe he can write for a smaller amount at a time.
As someone who has been diabetic, unemployed, broke, and out of insulin all at the same time, I can tell you that there are several pharmacies out there which will not sell you insulin without a prescription. However, you can go to an emergency room and tell them you’re out, and they’ll give you a vial of insulin for free.
Then they charge you $200 for the emergency room visit.
Hypoglycemia in an insulin-using diabetic is a life threatening situation, which is one of the things that causes panic. Re injecting insulin, the needles are very fine and you inject in the fat (spare tire, love handles) around your middle-- not into a vein.
To those who answered my serious question seriously, thank you.
To those who thought it was stupid: backatcha.
I didn’t mean it the way you took it. I don’t think I’ve ever said anything passively in my life. The exasperated eyebrow didn’t translate into the interwebs very well.
I never mentioned venipuncture, because poking yourself with a needle is poking yourself with a needle. I only know two insulin dependent diabetics well enough to have been around them during injections. Maybe my sample pool is too small, but neither of them would ever stick themselves with a needle again if it didn’t mean saving their own lives. Doesn’t matter whether the needle is a tiny 30 gauge or not - it’s still uncomfortable, just a little less uncomfortable than a 25 gauge. They can still feel it and it still causes bruising and soreness, especially in someone with barely any body fat.
I’ve been stuck accidentally with needles in my line of work, in several different sizes, and they all hurt to some extent. Heck, I’ve been slivered by cat and dog hairs and those hurt, too. (Ow, ow, what’s stabbing me in the hand? Look at that, it’s a hair under my skin!) It’s not like a searing pain like I’ve sliced myself open or something, but it still hurts, no matter how minor. People just don’t do that to themselves deliberately unless it’s a means to an end, such as saving their life, or getting that ever-elusive high just like the first time.
I didn’t think the OP was stupid at all. It’s a genuine curiosity question. My frustration is coming from not being able to explain it so the OP understands why it’s just not something people care to do.
I’ve been an IV opioid addict (decades ago, thankfully) and I’m a diabetic who has needed insulin in the past, and gotten hypoglycemic on it. And these days, I’m well-educated in the management of both opioid addiction and diabetes management, from a medical standpoint.
No way in hell that the sensation of hypoglycemia (borderline or severe) is in any way appealing to me. Physiologically, hypoglycemia is a bit like a hypo-opioid state, with one of the body’s responses to low blood sugar being a rapid partial clearing of any occupied opioid receptors (occupied by native endorphins or exogenous drugs) in an effort to get the person mobilized to get nourishment.
So for a typical junkie hypoglycemia is a mini-version of going into mild withdrawal. NOT a popular pursuit.
Interestingly enough, for a regular opioid needle-user, there is a bit of endogenous opioid release associated with merely sticking a needle into oneself, so some junkies do seek a high from self-injection of nearly anything when they’re jonesing.
Errr, no, the panic is a physical reaction, not a mental reaction. I’ve awakened enough times in a low blood sugar episode that I know it’s purely physical. And I did answer you seriously.
Druggies abuse various drugs because they enjoy the sensation. There’s no enjoyable sensation in a hypoglycemic episode, for ANYONE.
I don’t enjoy giving myself shots, or testing my blood. If my technique is perfect and the stars are aligned correctly, I don’t feel anything, it’s just another chore. Sometimes I guess that I must hit a nerve or something. At any rate, I’d be quite happy to never again have to stick myself with a sharp pointy object. And I’m a woman who gets her flu shot every year, and her pneumonia shot every 5 years. Injecting MYSELF is a bit more painful, for some reason.
This is true.
However, it’s not the ONLY thing about being hypoglycemic that causes panic. Just being hypoglycemic causes agitation and panic, because your body is releasing a whole bunch of stress hormones, essentially “saying”: “Holy shit! Holy shit! I need foooooooooood! I’m gonna die without foooooooooood!”
Even if you don’t know you’re hypoglycemic, or how to fix it, it tends to cause irritability and anxiety, if not full blown panic.
It wasn’t a stupid question in the OP at all. It’s getting a bit frustrating seeming like you’re digging your heels in and not believing the answers, though. I really don’t know how else to say it: druggies like things that feel good. Hypoglycemia doesn’t feel good.
Didn’t people use insulin for some weird diet? I think Sunny von Bulow used the diet.
This is helpful and well-informed.
Hypoglycemia in an insulin-dependent diabetic is a life-threatening condition and it causes the PHYSICAL sensation of panic.
I am subject to panic attacks, so I know that panic is a physical sensation.
I think I got my question answered, but am still mystified as to why my continuing to seek clarification produced the physical sensation of frustration in so many readers. Maybe y’all have low blood sugar and should drink an orange juice or something.
I found this on the web:
I don’t think it’s a stupid question, though I do think it’s odd. 
My dad is a Type 1 diabetic and while I’m not diabetic, I’ve had hypoglycemic episodes.
Hypoglycemia is an altered state, yeah. And I’ll agree with you that there are other substances that people have to “learn” to like and then appreciate the altered state. However, IME, most of the time the initial unpleasantness is because of something like taste or related to the delivery method (like the taste of alcohol or getting used to inhaling cigarette smoke).
But once you get past that, the altered state is in itself enjoyable (barring overdose, etc). But hypoglycemia’s altered state is not pleasant in and of itself. It really can’t be compared to other altered states that sure, may have some downsides (keeping with alcohol: stumbling, slurred speech, vomiting) but have benefits that most people feel outweigh those downsides (reduced inhibitions, relaxing, feeling buzzed, etc). No symptom/result of hypoglycemia feels good; all of them are downsides (feeling dizzy and lightheaded, about to pass out, breaking out in a cold sweat, weakness and trembling, reduced hearing and vision). I’m not surprised that Qadgop says it’s more like drug withdrawal than high.
Oh, and I get what you were trying to say about diabetic vs non diabetic reactions to hypoglycemia (that if you’re diabetic, you have a major chance of dying from it, so therefore any potential “high” would be canceled out by a primal panic, but since non diabetics wouldn’t generally have that worry, it wouldn’t interfere with the potential “high”, yes?), but I do disagree. Like I said, I’m not diabetic but I have had hypoglycemic episodes. I know very well I’m not in danger like my dad would be, but the feeling of utter dread and low-level panic is still there. I think you can’t separate it from hypoglycemia; it’s part of what you’re gonna feel no matter what.