Where/how do heroin addicts obtain syringes?

You can buy them by the box load. What I know about needle exchanges is that where they exist, people are safer.

Here in Seattle, and many other big cities, organizations give them out for free, as well as exchange. The idea is that if they are going to do it anyway, why not give them easy access to clean ones in order to try preventing the spread of deadly diseases. But yeah, as @pdworkin said, you can also buy boxes of them.

Mostly they acquire them from insulin addicts (diabetics). :Þ

Not all city’s have the foresight to have exchange or distribution programs (probably because of backwards thinking). And most addicts don’t save up to buy boxes. They spend everything they have on dope. So they rely on other addicts. Usually someone knows someone requiring insulin injections (or other) and they buy (or are given) syringes from this person.

The same way people acquire everything else – from the internet.

in Washington you can just go into a Walmart or Fred Myers and ask for them at the pharmacy. you don’t need medical documentation or anything… they might card you just to prove you’re 18, but that’s it. they have 10 packs of new rigs for only a couple bucks.

It depends on the state. Some states require a script, some don’t.

You can buy them at the drug store or pharmacy easily, and they don’t require anything specific to be obtained, ecxept money.
Organizations also give them out for free, under the belief that fresh needle supply will lessen the risk of transmitting the HIV virus and other things among heroin addicts.
Also, today, a lot of heroin addicts have devised different and faster methods by which to consume heroin, especially the ones who are homeless.

In some places there are needle exchange programs, where addicts can obtain clean needles. It’s excellent, as addicts can do their thing without getting AIDS and then passing it on to any children they may produce in a drug-fueled orgy.

@randomness – <sarcasm>Brilliant! No need for condoms if they have access to needle exchanges.</sarcasm>

@Futomara Sure, condoms would be a better option, but how many drug addled idiots would think to use them all the time? I don’t think giving drug addicts new needles is great, but I like that option better than thousands of babies with AIDS.

not everyone getting high is a monster it actually probably is someone you no very close