Thread by @DrSusieC2

1/ I have to inject myself with B12 once a month. This is a thread about what happens every single month when I ask the pharmacist for a needle. Spoiler warning: this is really a thread about how stigma against people who inject drugs costs lives.

2/ To set the scene: I am a White-passing feminine person in white-collar work clothes. I go to the pharmacy counter with candy for my office and some Cheez-Its, the extra toasty ones. The pharmacist checks me out and hands me my prescription in a brown paper bag. It begins.

3/ I ask the pharmacist if there is a needle in the bag. She looks confused and asks me why there would be. I explain that the B12 she gave me has to be injected. That requires a needle.

4/ She takes my brown bag and opens the prescription bottle to confirm that, yes, it says to inject the B12. She asks me if I would rather try oral B12. I tell her that I would love to not have to inject myself, but I tried oral B12 and it didn't work. May I have a needle?

5/ She contemplates the bag and tells me she will have to ask her manager. Her manager comes and re-confirms that yes, the B12 is injectable and no, I can not use the oral kind. Why hasn't my physician prescribed me a needle?

6/ I explain my physician wrote in the directions to dispense needles. They both confirm this on the bottle as well. They will have to look at their guidelines to see if they can sell me the needle, I will have to wait.

7/ Today a new thing happened. While one checked the guidelines the other said she recognized me, and hadn't I bought 3 needles from her before? Why was I now trying to buy another needle?

8/ Yes, I bought 3 needles 3 MONTHS ago. I now need more. But if she remembers selling me needles, why is she confirming my B12 is injectable, asking me to take oral, and confirming if she can sell me the needle?

9/ No answers, I will need to wait. 10 minutes later, she confirms she can sell me a needle. On average it takes me 2 minutes to get my B12 and about 20 minutes to get a needle. Same pharmacy, same pharmacists, every time. Why am I so angry about this?

10/ Under the expanded syringe access program ANY person age 18 and older can legally purchase clean hypodermic needles from pharmacies. Why? Because clean needles are harm reductive, and harm reduction saves lives.

11/ Rates of HIV and Hep C infections in New York have plummeted, and needle exchanges have played a critical part in this. Clean needles also reduce rates of infection at injection sites.

12/ People who access needle exchange programs are even more likely to stop using injectable drugs. A safe interaction with a non-judgmental person might be what someone needed to seek help quitting.

13/ If I, a well off looking White-passing person getting an injectable medication am faced with so much judgement every time I ask to purchase a needle, I shudder to think what others are having to face.

14/ I'm not angry about the extra 20 minutes. I don't mind a little quiet time to snack on my toasted Cheez-its. I am angry because the way the health care system treats people who use drugs with is actively causing harm. We need to be so much better.