There’s been a lot of ink and bytes used on this topic but the question persists:
What is better, singe dosed Ampules or Multidose Vials?
It seems every bodybuilder has a different opinion on the subject, but it would seem that one can see a trend if looking at geographical background of the builder. Bodybuilders living in the North America generally prefer Vials, most Europeans don’t really care as long as it’s good gear, and builders living in the UK prefer amps and will only use vials when no other option is present. This is a very general description of the situation and there are definitively exceptions to this (so don’t write me that “Hey, I live in PA and I only use amps!”). The reason for this division is a bit more complicated and it lays in the strengths and weaknesses of each form.
Amps were designed as a single dose container for sterile compounds and their main advantage is the fact you simply dispose of an amp after use. When using an injectable medicine in regular intervals this means that you use one dose while the rest of your stock is unaffected by application of the dose - this means the contents of other amps remain sterile and can be kept at normal storing conditions until expiration date without any problems. And when taking multiple doses at the same time you simply use multiple ampules. Amps also protect the contents better as there are no rubber seals that could potentially contaminate the contents.
Ampules have their problems though - the save weight and cost the glass it is made of is very thin, and ampules can brake easily if improperly transported (without proper protection). When properly transported, ampules can be quite bulk and when transporting a larger quantity they take more space than a comparable volume in vials. And the last weakness, if we can call it that, is the cumbersome use of ampules. Because an amp is made of a single piece of glass it has to broken in order to be opened. This presents a problem for less experienced/clumsier users because amps can crack in the wrong place, can shatter completely, or on some rare occasions small glass particles of glass can actually fall into the contents.
In the time of extensive drug counterfeiting and underground labs amps are regarded as a better alternative because they are harder to make than vials. Cheap ampule machines have changed that too, but if nothing else usage of amps shows higher commitment of the manufacturer.
Most human grade drugs are made in ampule form but there are some exceptions, especially in the US a lot of Human Grade pharmaceuticals still use vials.
Multidose Vials are mainly used for for veterinary use as the doses vary significantly depending on the animal size, and any complications are not considered so serious. They are also used in human medicine, again for easier changes of the dosages and easier usage of vials when the medicine must be applied in close succession. One of the main strengths of a vial is the ease of use. The user simply pops the top off and inserts the needle. No hassle with braking glass what so ever. With improvements in the technical field the contamination issues during manufacture are almost impossible. Furthermore, vials are smaller than amps (when comparing 10ml vial and 1ml amps) and are hence a lot easier to transport.
On the other hand, vials do have flaws. Should a vial brake during transport, the damage is far greater than with amps (if you brake one amps out of 10, you can still use the other 9…). But the biggest problem is, once you open a vial, you cannot store it indefinitely. Because of it’s design, once you pop the top, the rubber is exposed to the elements. Afterwords end every time you draw the vial, you potentially import foreign object into the solution within the vial. This is not really a concern when proper injection protocols are followed (eg. doctors…), but most juicers don’t inject under perfect conditions and sometimes mistakes are made. Imagine for example what would happen if you used a used pin for drawing a water based steroid like winstrol - although the product was completely sterile when the vial was opened the contaminants on the pin would grow in the water solution and in the long run could be a cause of an infection.
The last and also very important difference between vials and amps lies in the manufacturing procedure. While amps require complicated machinery to be closed vials can be made in a home basement where the top is simply crimped on the vial. That is the reason all underground steroids come in multidose vials - they are a lot simpler to make. It is generalized that a company that bothers to invest into ampule machines will also bother to use better raw materials and batter oils, proper working conditions, etc, which in the end means a better and safer product. On the other hand the underground situation these days is such that people will invest into ampule machines and make perfect copies of Sustanon that contain nothing but kitchen oil while others will make a perfect product that comes in a simple vial. There simply is no rule of thumb…
As was said in the beginning, most people have their preference when it comes to amps vs vials. And most people usually have their preference simply because the products they can obtain come in a specific container, or the product that they had the best success with came in that specific container. However new juicers should consider the strengths and weaknesses named above and decide what is more important for them, hopefully this article will help them decide.
Couple of weeks ago there was a news post on www.britishdragon.com stating that new batches of their products are now ready and being sold. The whole news post was like this:
First line of products
British Dragon is glad to announce that the first line of products has left our facility and the products are available on the market. Do note that all British Dragon products are protected by our BD-PSS system. BD-PSS consists of state of the art hologram and security verification number. All End-customers are advise to verify the legitimacy of their product by verifying the security number on our web-page.
We advise all customers to check the BD-PSS on their product for each and every product. BD-PSS is designed in such a way that it is destroyed if it is tampered with and customers are advised to return any products that show signs of tampering with. Given the amount of counterfeited British Dragon products we must emphasize not to use any British Dragon products that don’t have BD-PSS hologram and number or it is damaged. Using unverifiable products can be lethal!
At that time I was really excited, after all, British Dragon has always had a special spot in my hart as being one of the best manufacturers of it time. Resurrection of a brand with promises of extremely high quality products was really important to me, I guess as much exciting as Bugatti resurrection was important and exciting to car enthusiasts. When I got news they started selling their products I was thrilled. I will never own a Veyron but I’ll sure as hell try to get my hands on some Andropen. OK, I know newer say never and maybe I will some day get my hands on a Veyron, or the new sedan they’ll be putting out. And I know Andropen is now called Sustabol Inject, but the thrill is still there.
But there is this little problem that I’m having these days - It’s been couple of weeks since the news and I can’t find ANY place that would have them on stock. I know there’s places that sell British Dragon, but they’re selling the old version, according to the official British Dragon page counterfeited… All I could find were some sites that have British Dragon listed as coming soon, and just about nothing else. No pictures, no info whatsoever.
There are people claiming they’ve seen em, some are saying that the first batches were sold to exclusive customers, some saying it all went to Dubai, etc. Basically, there’s bunch of unconfirmed rumors and no hard info. I’m being promised a picture soon, and I will be sure to post it as soon as I get, but beyond there is really no info available out there.
I sure do hope the analogy I used above (the Bugatti part) will not become completely true. As Bugatti is reserved for the elite and only seen on TV and in the newspapers, I hope the British Dragon will not be seen only on the internet and used only by the special few who can afford it.
We know that the Police newer sleeps and again the law enforcement in the states and elsewhere has performed numerous steroid related arrests.
In Pennsylvania 10 people were arrested and more people will be arrested as the case develops (click here for video):
They were allegedly selling, and some were even making steroids.
Now ten men and women, several from our area, have been busted for their reported involvement in a drug ring.
State Attorney General Tom Corbett says Operation Roid Runner
started back in 2007 and today, resulted in the arrest of ten people.
Corbett says those ten men and women brought drugs into Pennsylvania from Mexico and China and were distributing them to people from
Cumberland and Dauphin Counties to Lehigh and Northampton Counties.
The accused allegedly used, sold and even made the steroids amounting to almost $200,000. Former husband and wife, stacy and Eric garonzik allegedly injected their clients with the drugs at their gym, Kinectics in Lemoyne, which is now closed. Corbett says the distribution of steroids is becoming more widespread and adds he and his team are going to stay on the operation.
“As many of you know steroids can be addictive and they can have very many negative side effects,” said State Attorney General Tom Corbett. “We need to take these people who distribute this poison off of the streets.”
More arrests are expected in this case. Those already caught are out on bail, their preliminary hearing is scheduled for January.
Another, more frightening action is currently being run by Interpol, called Operation Pangea II. Full press release can be found here.
However, it seems that the real objective of Operation Pangea is not stopping sales of Steroids and is more oriented toward stopping sales of counterfeited drugs. Steroids seem to be involved simply because they are one of the most counterfeited products:
Our primary goal in Operation Pangea II is to protect the public by removing counterfeit and illicit medicines from the market, by shutting down those engaged in illegal sales on the web and by criminally prosecuting those potentially putting the lives of innocent consumers at risk by selling counterfeit or illicit medicines
The widespread rumor has it that operations like this were initially instigated and in some case also con-founded by Pfizer as the most widely drug counterfeited on the market is erectal dysfunction drug Viagra.
It is quite interesting is that the Interpol is actually identifying and closing down internet domains where these items are sold:
During the operation, Internet monitoring revealed 751 websites engaged in illegal activity, including offering controlled or prescription only drugs, 72 of which have now been taken down.
As the investigation/operation is still under way it it will be interesting to observe how many of steroids-dedicated sites will go down in the next moths. And we will also be able to see if the objective is protection of corporate profit (only sites selling fake Viagra will go down) or if the objective is actually public safety (in which case all UGL sites will go down). My bet is on the former.
The roumors have been floating around for some time about British Dispensary, one of the most dianabol makers in the world, loosing their license to produce their brand name dianabol called Anabol.
All of us have come to appreciate the pink tabs that became synonymous with Dianabol as a good product for a reasonable price. This may come to an end now though.
As British Dispensary was well accepted on the steroid market so did they become a problem to the DEA and other law enforcement agencies around the world. Although British Dispensary did not violate any laws directly their products were mainly sold outside of Thailand where they are registered and illegally exported worldwide. It is estimated that as much as 80% of their production was exported directly by the British Dispensary to various trading companies world-wide, and of those 20% that were sold in Thailand great majority was also exported to other countries.
Couple of months ago rumors emerged that British Dispensary lost their license to produce Anabol in Thailand. These rumors stipulated that different reasons for their loss of license but I was told by a very reliable source that the main reason their license was revoked was because the US authorities used their influence with Thai government and pressured them into suspending their license. At the moment it seems that British Dispensary will not be able to apply for a new license nor it is clear what will happen with other Dispensary anabolic steroids products (at the moment they still produce Azolol and Androlic). Another problem are tensions between the owners of British Dispensary - the company is family owned and one portion of the family wishes to cease production completely while the other portion would like to continue production…
It is said that Dispensary still has large stocks of Anabol on stock (they cannot produce new batches but they can still sell old batches) and they are still available on the market. However, I fear that soon we will be faced with the same problem as with most other brands - there will still be demand for Anabol and as Dispensary will not produce it anymore the counterfeiters will fill the void. In the end this will turn out to be another stupid interjection by US government that will force users to change a quality product for dangerous counterfeited or underground products.
Asia Pharma has published their production video (published on Asia Pharma website as well) on YouTube. It is of a bit better quality that the one on their site and most important of all you can watch it full screen
I hope all larger Steroid manufacturers would give us insight into their manufacturing process this way, It would be a lot easier to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I have an extended article about positive and negative sides on purchasing steroids online here. However, I’ve had some new experience in this respect recently - and I thought I would share my thoughts on this.
As many people I’ve grown accustomed to buying stuff on the net - from software and music, computer-hardware, to some really weird items from ebay. The thing is, it grows on you, and once you get used to it you have certain expectations that one reflects on all internet dealings.
As all things in life this has positive and negative consequences though. On one hand I’m more and more trusting towards all internet offerings and in most cases this is a good thing. Years ago I could never imagine trusting some guy on ebay to send me the newest Dell computer for half of retail price. These days it’s only natural. The bad thing is I now expect all internet dealings to be as straightforward as buying a book from Amazon.
The problem these days is I often forget that buying steroids online and having them shipped to US is not really legal (understatement, I know). It became a habitual thing to me. I recently bought some exotic roids from Europe (again) and the shipment was late, 6 days overdue. Naturally I contacted the store and (not using really nice words) demanded to know what was going on. They were nice enough to explain to me when the items were shipped and from where, but that I couldn’t track the shipment because it was not shipped by registered mail. HUH?!
Well, several emails later and I was able to understand everything. With international mail registered packages need to have declaration of contents included. In many countries steroids are legal so one would think no problem, just declare medicine. Well, the customs do read the declaration so those would be checked immediately. A, I was thinking, why not lie? Supposedly, if one lies on the declaration it can be considered a criminal offense. Basically, as I understand, the only way to keep themselves and their customers out of trouble is to simply ship by regular mail.
Finally, the package did arrive. Just delayed a bit.
I got to wonder though, and eventually I did realize that I couldn’t really blame anyone but the country I live in for the problems. I’m not gonna nag about how roids should be legal and all that, but the bottom line is, if you live in a country where a product is illegal, you can’t expect everything to go smoothly every time and sometimes you could have problems.
For example, if you order steroids and they get confiscated, who’s fault is it? Sure, most of us would be angry at the supplier for not shipping carefully enough, but I’ve seen that customs sometimes open packages that could only contain paper. Couple of years back customs would locate and open packages that contained sachets or paper anabolics, which were designed with the sole purpose of passing customs. I really wonder how larger items actually pass customs. I guess if I had a package seized I’d be really angry, but I guess it would be my fault as well, as I’ve paid someone to send those items to me. Unfortunately it’s a take it or leave it situation and one has to be a bit lucky for everything to go smoothly every time.
The bottom line is, I still beleive buying steroids online is the best option for most people (the ones living too far from Mexico anyways). But you do need to keep in mind that ordering steroids to the states is not the same thing as buying your everyday item from Amazon.
Asia Pharma has registered new products in Thailand:
Asia Pharma is announcing registration of following new products:
1. Stanobolic tablets (Stanozolol 10 mg in 100 tablets box)
Thai FDA registration number of Stanobolic is 1C 153/52
2. Oxyanabolic tablets (Oxymetholone 50 mg in 100 tablets box)
Thai FDA registration number of Oxyanabolic is 1C 152/52
3. Tamoxol tablets (Tamoxifen Citrate 20 mg in 20 tablets box)
Thai FDA registration number of Tamoxol is 1C 157/52
I hope these products will be available in Thailand soon. Than again, Cyp and Deca are still not available in Thailand. So I hope all are available soon. More info on Asia Pharma website.
And a new pharmacy stocks AsiaPharma:
G.M. Drugs
Open : 12.00 - 24.00
18, Kitpanit Building
Patpong Road ,Suriwongse,
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Thailand
It’s no secret that Llewellyn is writing a book that will supposedly expose the truth behind Underground anabolic steroids labs by testing each and every one for contents, bacteria, heavy metal, etc. The book should have been published some time ago but has been delayed because of additional tests that take extra time. Unfortunately there are already widespread rumors that the delay caused because some powerful manufacturers are trying to get better results by all means possible - bribes, attacks, threats. Could that be true?
UNDERGROUND ANABOLICS is in fact awaited eagerly by many bodybuilders as it will literally dictate the sales of anabolics in the future. If a product will be listed as good the lab will multiply sales overnight. If the results will be bad that lab might as well stop producing. And every lab is aware of that - it seems they are literally competing who would provide samples, who woldn’t, there are multiple rumours around that they are trying to bribe the authors to show their products in better (or perfect) light. The Alin-BOS little war is a good example - it has been going on for some time now and was at its height when Alin supposedly DDoSed bodyofscience homesite. At the time I speculated Axxio was behind that, but BOS people claim it was Alin. Alin says it wasn’t him. So I can’t even tell if I’m right or wrong.
The interesting thing to note here though is the developments after the DDoS. It seems the attacks suddenly just stopped. BOS didn’t move to a new server nor was it upgraded/changed/moved behind a firewall/proxy. Nothing. It seems that whoever did the attack simply stopped it after a week. From past experience we learned that when Alin does a DDoS, he doesn’t stop until he has achieved what he wanted.
So the relevant question is what was it that BOS offered to Alin to stop the attacks? Maybe nothing, but if we consider some of the posts during and after the attack it seems somewhat weird. First of all, during the attacks RonnyT was bitching on other forums that they were under attack by Alin. After attacks stopped Alin made couple of posts on BOS Forums stating that he wasn’t the attacker and they had a heated argument with Ronny showing their communications from the past etc. The thread with a conclusion between the two that it is now status Quo - as before. It looks a bit fishy as I would expect some resentment after a DDoS attack, but it seems BOS people are quite forgiving…
This month something interesting happened. Muscular Development published an Article by William Llewellyn in the August issue about Bacteria Contamination. In this article there is only one mention of Balkan Pharmaceuticals, and it is listed in the section of “Oil-based steroids that were analyzed from each of the following companies/underground labs were clean, with no significant bacterial level”. In the section of water based steroids Balkan is not mentioned at all. To be truthful, only three water based-products were tested, but given that Balkan is one of the biggest UGs one would expect that their Strombaject Aqua would be tested along with others. Unless they were only testing products provided by manufacturer and as we saw Balkan was unwilling to donate. As one of the strongest advantages of Balkan is price one would think that they would be ale to procure couple of vials (they are on stock) and test them. Strange - at the same time they are (supposedly?) very angry with each other but on the other hand it seems that no criticism is intended.
On July 18th Williiam wrote an open letter to Alin that can be found here Basically it states that the book results will not be influenced in any way. I would somehow think this doesn’t need to be explained at all; if it needs to be explained, why not include everyone/send it to everyone? It almost looks like William needs to explain/excuse himself, which in a way could mean they are sorry for something. What could that be?
In the same letter Llewellyn wrote:
1) While most other labs refused also, Alin, having professed to us privately many times to have the best QC in the business, refused to send in any samples for testing even though we had a strong open dialog. Even though he would have had total control over when he sent, he sent nothing. We had to get from the black market, like most.
Hmm. In the article in Muscular Development it is pointed out that water based steroids are extremely hard to make with low bacteria count - if we look at it from the perspective of safety we can conclude that a company that can make a good bacteria-free water-based product can also make a good oil based product. So by checking test of Stanozolol Depot we can basically say which company is good or not. Given the fact that Balkan is one of the top 5 Black market manufacturers it is extremely weird it is not listed. It’s true that articles for MD have to be prepared a long time in advance but as the book is being prepared for a very long time now I can’t really accept it as an excuse.
Another problem with the book that I can see is sourcing of tested products. As we can see from open letters and open discussions between Alin and Ronny, BOS team tried to obtain samples from the manufacturers. As long as these samples are only kept as reference and compared to the samples bought on the black market it is OK. But from the discussions on the BOS boards it would seem they have a lack of samples obtained directly from the source as any other bodybuilder would (among other reasons finances are given). So if they run out of money, will they only show results of samples given directly by the manufacturer? I should emphasize that the book will only be helpful to an everyday Joe as long as it completely mimics the behavior of an everyday juicer - samples have to be bought by anonymous individuals from the sources listed as legitimate suppliers, paid in cash if possible, with no hints of any testing whatsoever. I’m sure that William Llewellyn knows this, but I’m pointing it out because it’s never stressed enough. And for complete transparency it could be helpful if the sources would at least be hinted at in the book.
And finally the most disappointing issue that there might be something wrong. I’m taking the Muscular Development Article as a hint of what the book will contain (the article conclusions says so anyway). I will re-write an excerpt from the article in MD so you will get the picture of what I mean.
Of the four water based products that were sent into the lab, three samples contained very high levels of bacteria. The only water-based product that passed bacteria screening was an (additional) ampule of Alpha Pharma stanozolol (lot RX8001). Alpha Pharma is a registered pharmaceutical exporter in India. Their products are not sold domestically in that country, but are not considered ‘underground,’ either. If the product with lot RX7001 actually came from the same company (which we cannot say for certain), it wold underline how difficult it can be to assemble sterile water-based products. As a registered manufacturer, this company should have extensive quality control measures in place (the second lot did pass inspection). India, after all, does have a fairly developed pharmaceutical industry. Still we find bacteria in one of the samples.
At first glance, It looks OK. But if you rethink what is says it’s, argh, wtf?! It doesn’t seem like an eyeopening revelation with straight conclusions, more like a very diplomatically written article who tries not offend Alpha Pharma… If we check the facts - IF Alpha Pharma was manufactured in a pharma environment, the batch RX7001 would never made it in circulation but would have been destroyed in the factory (remember, by world standards, every products must be lab-tested before it leaves the factory…) - in the article it is rather said “it’s even hard to do it for a legit pharma company”. Than it is hinted that it could have been a counterfeit. Here, at least saying if it was obtained from a legit supplier would help us a great deal. And third, It is nowhere stated where the second amp was obtained. It says additional so was it sent in by Aplha Pharma after the first sample showed bacteria?, was it bough at the same time, etc? What I conclude from this is Alpha Pharma is just as bad as the other two products because if I bought it I would be playing bingo never knowing what I’d get. “You have a 50/50 chance of infection - good luck!”
I don’t know what the book UNDERGROUND ANABOLICS will look like. At this moment I’m just pointing out some details I really think the authors should look at before putting the book for sale. People have really high hopes for this book and if it will not be written in such a way as not to allow for any doubt, it could as well bury the Author.
The counterfeiters are a plague of pharmaceutical markets for the past 15 years or so. Even more so in the world of anabolic steroids, where established brands, known for the quality and potency of their prods, are counterfeited as soon as the brand gets some positive feedback. So it would seem that a good, responsible manufacturer would also put some effort in making their products as hard to counterfeit as possible.But they rarely do. Why is that?
A new brand was launched couple of months ago, definitely UG, but given the reports of very good quality and very affordable. They seem to have done almost everything right (OK, some of info on the labels was misspelled and users on the forums had to correct them, but these are minor flaws). They also seem to be investing heavily into the advertising so up to this point everything seemed to be perfect. Well, almost everything as they have just declared their products are being counterfeited.
It’s very hard to protect a pharmaceutical brand from counterfeiting these days - all kinds of machinery for making amps, filling vials, pressing tabs, etc, can be bought for a little money. So with little knowledge and effort anyone can make a perfect copy of any product on the market. The endless discussions on the forums whether a product is fake or not prove this point. It is very interesting that so little companies actually react to that. The product verification most used at this time seems very reliable and easy to implement, and some conscious (and some a bit less conscious) companies have actually implemented it without any problems. Euro Hormones, Jintropin, Asia Pharma, Balkan, even the new British Dragon, all have some sort of a variation of product verification.
So the question at hand is why don’t they all do it? Answering this is a bit harder than one would think though.
Major pharmaceutical companies are extremely touchy when their reputation is at stake. Companies like Schering, Organon, Norma, etc, cherish the profits they make from sales of anabolic steroids but are aware that at the same time these products have negative effect on their reputation. They are most probably aware that their products are used as sport enhancers but they ignore it as long as the money comes in and no questions are asked. Given this status quo the counterfeiting of their products is actually a little bit in their interest. Whenever Anabolics are found in a raid or at a customs check it is extremely hard to say if they are originals or counterfeits, and the company owning the brand can always claim they are counterfeits. So for them the counterfeits are basically excuse to sell even greater amounts of products. It makes it a bit harder for the end user, but that’s the price of doing worldwide business.
On the other hand we have small Underground labs. These have a completely different problem - quality. Even the best of them can never be sure how their next batch will look like as they are always dependent on the raw material suppliers. If the raw materials are bunk, the end product will be bunk. And one bunk batch can kill an Underground. And if they had a solid, tamper proof verification system, they could potentially be exposed as manufacturing bunk gear. So for these Labs counterfeiting, given the right conditions, is a positive thing. They could be loosing some profits from counterfeiters but on the other hand whenever there is a problem with any of their products the line will be “It’s a counterfeit products, not ours”. Hmmm.
I know, you’re now thinking, hey, they all have a list of valid suppliers, whoever is there has to have their legit products. The answer is - NOT. This system was introduced by the old British Dragon and it showed how vulnerable it is. Alin was the first to do this. The scam is very simple - Order a small amount of original products and you will earn your place on the legitimate supplier list. Once you are there, simply order or make lots of fakes. Every once in a while order some extra originals and you are set. Profit guaranteed. You are a bastard but you’ll earn a lot, and the best thing is, if you get a complaint you simply direct the customer to the manufacturer (and the manufacturer will blame counterfeits). You are on the supplier list so it is definitely not your fault.
There are probably some extra reasons why these verification systems are not in place. Hard to implement, costs extra, not user-friendly, etc, is simply an excuse as the price of a simple system is probably insignificant compared to the price of the whole product. And I’m sure every customer would be willing to pay an extra dollar or two to be absolutely sure that the product is legitimate.
So considering everything we can see that in all cases the real reason why such a system is not in place is unwillingness of the company to be accountable for their products. In case of large pharmaceutical companies that can be partially understood, while in case of Underground Labs it simply shows the level of their self esteem. So if you have a choice between two very equal products, one with a verification and one without, go for the one with verification…
