You wouldn’t pirate a medicine, would you?

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43 points

I’m a process chemist. I do this sort of thing for a living.

These guys don’t even know why what they’re suggesting is so dangerous. Do not do any of this.

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0 points

I’m a dumbass. I don’t do this sort of thing for a living. Do you think it will ever be as safe as properly manufactured and prescribed drugs?

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5 points

No. Never. It takes whole teams of people to get it right. (Even then, they sometimes get it wrong.)

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12 points

Yeah that was my first thought too. While I kind of get the spirit of it, in practice this is so absurdly dangerous IMO. Even if someone has the best possible intentions, there are so many things that could go wrong with this, especially if you include things like long-term effects that aren’t immediately apparent, or interactions with other drugs, especially if you’re taking other home-made pills with potentially unknown ingredients. While it can be frustrating to hear about a promising new medicine that won’t be available for years, there’s a reason why they spend so long testing these things.

IMO the better (but much more difficult) solution is reforming the medical industry so that it’s easier for people to see a doctor and actually afford to get medicine. I’m not usually a fan of big government stuff, but medicine is one of those things that just needs to be kept under supervision I think.

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16 points

As someone with a chemistry background I’m surprised you think the industry even takes half these precautions for our current drugs.

Not even talking about ‘state of the art’ meds here were talking the plastics from cars that’ve been around since the 60’s is under studied (but hey its sponsored by oil money so its ‘safer’)

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12 points

The global medical community had to beg the US to ban lead from consumer products like paint and gasoline for close to 80 years and our politicians kept taking bribes from lobbyists to ignore medical science… But did we learn from that and ban lobbying? Nope, lobbyists are now bribing politicians to ignore the plastic epidemic and global warming

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8 points

I think these guys might be able to hack through the process and get stuff done and think getting other people to follow them will be trivial as well. But just because they didn’t mess up, doesn’t mean other people won’t. A large majority might end up hurting themselves if they follow in their route.

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3 points

That’s the thing. They have no way of even knowing if they messed up! I’m not even sure the way they could be messing up is a thing they know they should be worried about.

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16 points

I mean if you’re going to die without access, roll the dice.

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12 points

Or if your access would be bullshit constrained.

Endocrinologists fuck up hormone dosages on a regular enough basis that transfems will buy the estrogen powder, convert to injectable solution, and do it themselves.

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67 points

I’m a quality chemist. I test the API’s that process chemists make to be sure they’re right. Yeah, reactions don’t always proceed as intended. These guys do understand the risks, and are only trying to provide an option. Here in the US the insurance companies are perfectly willing to let us die because funding expensive treatment hurts their bottom line. Unless you’re independently wealthy, a small scale reactor at home may become the only option a person has available. Definitely risky, but why not take the chance when corporate America has determined you’re not valuable enough to save?

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18 points

It’s not even funding the expensive treatments, it’s not charging a 1000x markup hurting their bottom line. It’d be one thing if it were genuinely expensive medicine (i would still propose a distribution method other than “capitalism”) but it’s not.

If these meds were available for a reasonable price i don’t think we’d be seeing groups like this.

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10 points

Quite frankly, the contamination from pesticide and polluted air, water and dirt on everyday foods (and of course my herbs) are a bigger concern. They’re ubiquitous and unavoidable, now, thanks to big business and apathetic, time-constrained, overworked individuals. So I’m not that concerned by home remedies, although I really only trust my own. Some herbalists/root medics add turpentine to their remedies, for internal use. So I’ll stick to my own or vetted suppliers.

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4 points

I’m not disputing the reasoning behind why this is important. But “it is important” does not imply that their solution is the right one.

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4 points

The “right one” would be open access by governments. But that’s socialism, and bad for reasons ($$$$).

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7 points

But the right solution is inconstitutional and anti-corporate! Even socialist and maybe even “woke”! So, this is the option TPTB are leaving us with.

Don’t like it? The second most useful thing to do compared to this is to ready your guillotine. That is the language they understand.

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8 points

There really should be better options, but it’s where this country is currently at, where some home chemistry is something people would have to consider. You’re right, it’s dangerous and certainly has a lot of risks. With some background in it myself and access to resources that the general public doesn’t have, I would still be hesitant to try something I’d cooked up in the basement at home. But, I’m also not at the point where I’m going to die from a treatable but unaffordable disease.

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30 points

Hey guys, many other countries have figured out that healthcare doesn’t have to be a privatized, for-profit nightmare. Perhaps that’s an option worth exploring.

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14 points

You’re ignoring the fact that it’s nearly impossible to implement this right now. Big pharma and numerous politicians want to keep the status quo for as long as possible. By the time we have more affordable medicine, numerous people would have suffered greatly or died because they couldn’t access the medicine they need. Having solutions that don’t require an entire rework of the healthcare industry is necessary so that we can save as many lives as possible.

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13 points

Isn’t medical tourism a thing in the US too; like you can fly to a developing country, get your treatment done by top specialists there and fly back to US and the cost would still be lower than what it would have taken to do in home country.

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5 points

Haha, what?!? That’s crazy talk!

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17 points

Plenty have been fighting for it, but there’s an uphill battle against “but that’s socialism and socialism is evil!” and those that personally benefit financially who stand in the way.

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20 points
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18 points

People make illicit drugs chock full of impurities all the time too, and it fucks people up.

There are standards for purity on pharmaceuticals. Impurities have to be ridiculously low. Lower than you can measure in your garage.

These dudes either don’t know you need to even measure purity or have decided that it’s inconvenient and are ignoring it.

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20 points

Or, and hear me out, they know what the risks are and have assessed that they are reasonable when the alternative is death? I do disagree with them asserting they are higher-quality though, or I would at least like to see incontrovertible proof of that.

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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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