I have to give myself an insulin injection twice a day. I always reuse the morning syringe in the evening; that way, by seeing/not seeing the syringe lying there, I can tell whether I’ve remembered to do my previous injection. But I’d never reuse it more than once; too much risk of contaminants.
I am having trouble understanding the government prohibition explanation. Government prohibits the drugs themselves and imprisons people for having them. Yet, the addicts apparently have no trouble hiding it from the government (which, fortunately, has not yet installed a video camera in everyone’s apartment to catch the law breakers). So, why can’t they also hide the syringes in the same fashion?
The bit about the needles degrading from use makes sense, that’s interesting. But that raises some additional questions:
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if the needle degrades for a single user over several insulin injections, shouldn’t it degrade just as much for multiple needle sharers? And yet, this doesn’t stop them from sharing, even though not only they end up with a painful needle but also increase chances of infection.
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in the bad old days I think most medical needles were intended to be reusable, possibly after boiling. If the addicts could obtain some of those needles (let’s say if Medellin cartel would manufacture those, in case nobody else wants to), would this solve the problem of needle degradation?
Well, I don’t have much experience of injectable recreational drugs, but based on what I know of other drugs, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine someone starting an IV habit all by themselves.
It’s not like someone decides out of the blue to start a heroin habit, researches it at the library, shops around for an economical and reliable source of needles, self studies some anatomy and practices injections, and then goes out and tries to find a heroin source on Craigslist. Someone has to introduce them to it.
And so I think for nearly everyone, their first experience is in fact going to be social, and they’re not going to be have their own needle at the time. So I assume most people get used to sharing needles because they almost have to in order to start a habit.
I seem to recall a social aspect in my experience with recreational IV use. Expecially cocaine, less so with heroine and it varied with Meth.
I did sometimes see the screw on type needles but they were rare. I assume that replacing the tips were just as much of a hassle as getting new rigs altogether. We did sharpen them with match box strikers and it worked. Standard protocal for sharing if you did not each have your own was to heat the tip with a lighter pull a few rinses with straight water or a bleach solution. Then draw up your drug and never if you are good draw any blood back into the rig. Once you hit a vein you know it from experience or sometimes if you are pumped up good a tiny trace of red will enter the solution in the rig. Drawing back to make sure you are in the vein and filling with blood is a no no. But some people do it. You can tell if you are missing from a slight bump that forms. It is harder and actually less safe for others to to it for you as they usually have to draw back more to ensure a vein introducing more blood. You can feel it slide differently once you hit a vein with good equipment.
I never got any disease from it. But I did share sometimes. Insulin type syringes were the most common. Easiest to get. If you looked presentable a good story will get you some at the pharmacy or vet. Otherwise Just keep on sharpening and hope more come your way. That is why folks have to share. It is why I think they should be free or legal. The drug use will go on reguardles of the availability of the rigs.
Sometimes dealers would have them but usually only heroine dealers. Coke dealers are selling a powder that may be used for mostly snorting. Their big customers are not running the shit.
So the answer I have for reusables is that the tips are no easier and if not harder to find than the disposables. And if you are using coke you are on your own.
Side note.
In prison they were made with the internals of an incandescent light bulb.
For the people on the “drugs are illegal ban syringes rap” let me point out that due to Australia recognizing that sharing needles leads to the transmission of disease [HIV in the 1980s was the driver] Syringes are available to junkies free. We now have a very low HIV/Hepatitis level within our drug user community.
Why is this a good thing? Well a few syringes cost a hell of a lot less than antivirals for life.
Good on you, Mate. I wish we had that here. Couple questions, do people have to register as junkies, do they have to turn in used needles, are they available all over or only in select locations where lots of rehab information is on display?
Some insurance plans will not cover usage of the pens for people with no coordination or vision problems; they apparently cost more. (I spend all day long talking to diabetics for the disease management program I work for, and I get told this repeatedly.) This is also why hospitals use the vials/syringes - expense, mostly. Or so I’ve been told.
Oh, thanks for correcting me on that. I didn’t know that, and now that I think about it, I guess I always just assumed she was talking about skin AND vein, not just skin itself.
I know she also had to stick the needle through the rubber top of a glass bottle of insulin to fill the syringe, and as outlierrn pointed out above, that dulls the needle as well. I never thought about that doing it until outlierrn’s post, but it makes sense…
ETA: So what happens if you inject the insulin intravenously? Bad Stuff?
Regular insulin is the only type approved for IV use, I’m not sure what happens if you put the others into a vein.
Sorry for continuing this hijack, but … what kind of insulin do diabetics inject, if it’s not regular insulin?
The Dutch government actually offers free replacement of syringes. Addicts can get free ones if they trade in an old one. This has the added advantages of there less HIV-riddled needles lying about on the street or in the trash for people to find or hurt themselves on.
Hijack-
Regular insulin is the basic insulin molecule. It can be human, porcine, bovine or made from bacteria using recombinant DNA technology (most commonly). It acts very, very quickly but the effects don’t last very long.
Drug companies have modified it by adding various protein sub chains and substances like Zinc.
This has the effect of making the duration of action different- everything from ultra long acting to ultra rapid acting.
See here.
Most diabetics are on a basal bolus regime- one long acting type of insulin (usually at night) with boluses of a short acting type at meal times.
Some diabetics are on a twice daily regime where they inject themselves twice with a solution which contains a mixture of short and long acting insulins.
IV use of long acting insulin just isn’t done- I have no idea what would actually happen, other than a serious crash in the blood sugar at an unpredictable time in the future, which is a BAD thing. The dose of IV insulin is smaller than the usual dose, for obvious reasons- it gets to where it needs to go, quicker.
The NHS must get some sort of deal from the drug companies on the pens- believe me, if it was significantly cheaper to have people on vials and syringes, we’d have people on vials and syringes.
Select locations away from kiddies etc and the return of old needles is encouraged but not enforced. Over a period of time some users build a rapport with the workers and then they are referred if they wish.
The NHS on England and Scotland just gives out needles. You can see adverts on chemist’s windows.
*Scotland 2006: DRUG addicts were handed 3.5million free needles in Scotland last year.
They were given by syringe exchange schemes to cut the risk of addicts contracting killer diseases such as HIV or Hepatitis C by sharing dirty needles.
The figure, revealed in a report for the Scottish Executive, shows heroin remains a major problem.
The report said nearly 32,000 addicts had used Scotland’s 188 needle exchange schemes last year.
But that figure was well below the estimated 50,000 heroin addicts in Scotland -suggesting that thousands were using dirty needles.
The report called for more Executive funding for needle exchange schemes. More than one million needles were handed out in Glasgow.
The second highest figure was 605,000 in Aberdeen, followed by 538,000 in Fife.
A further 336,000 were handed out in Ayrshire and 326,000 in Lanarkshire. *
Now I’m going to presume this must cost a lot, but the Guardian has a NICE report that it provides value as compared to not helping in this fashion:
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Prof Mike Kelly, director of the institute’s public health division, said there are about 200,000 injecting drug users in Britain. He estimated about 25% of users share needles, putting themselves at a greatly increased risk of being infected with Hepatitis C or HIV.
Kelly said: “The cost to the NHS of caring for someone who injects drugs is around £35,000 over their lifetime. From a societal perspective, the average [lifetime] cost rises to an estimated £480,000 when you take into account the high cost of crime including criminal justice costs.”
About 40% of drug users who inject are already infected with Hepatitis C and their risk of death is 10 times higher than among the population at large.*
I don’t care one way or the other about drug use; but as fellow citizens it seems good sense to non-judgementally police their strange practice and enable them to live happier, less ill, lives.
There are places that pass out free syringes. Also, read up on Insite, North America’s first safe injection site. Of course, not everyone wants it to stay open, and there is controversy but most peer reviewed journal articles think it is doing good.
To continue the hijack, IV use of rapid insulin results in a very quick, very hard crash in blood sugar – I speak from first hand experience there!
Lynn, the insulin pumps don’t actually use a needle all the time. A hollow needle is used to insert a 6-9mm cannula (depending on which pump/infusion set you use) and then withdrawn. The cannula stays under the skin, and 99.999% of the time is not even noticeable. It really beats sticking yourself multiple times a day, and with the pump I use (OmniPod), you don’t even have to insert the cannula manually.
That’s the thought that gives me the heebie jeebies. It’s not rational, it’s just my reaction to it. Something is UNDER MY SKIN! OMG IT’S A CHIGGER!
Aaah, I see. Though I’m so glad I never had that reaction – my insulin pump is, IMO, the best thing since sliced bread!
Around here, it’s easy- the one with the rig goes to jail. Of course one should be concerned about contracting AIDS or hep C in the long term, but in the short term one REALLY needs a lesser charge. ;). Free needles are everywhere, but until the laws change it doesn’t matter.
Think of it as a game of hot potato- you don’t want to be holding the gear when the music stops.
IIRC, free safe injection needles has been a failure in NYC, for one thing that they would be collected and resold for high prices to addicts too strung out to get to a distribution center.