Views on buying weight loss injections online and grey market use

[AngryofTunbridgeWells]

First off, I am NOT considering this in the least, but I have fallen down a Reddit rabbit hole and find it quite intriguing. It looks like many people do seem to be buying it online, which seems bonkers to me but, clearly, not to them.

Plus, I am now inundated by adverts for ‘peptides’ all pretending (I assume) to be from verifiable laboratories.

Is anyone here on Reta and taking advantage of the ‘grey market’ in it? How do you know it’s safe? I know a local sunbed shop is apparently ‘selling Ozempic’ so is Reta also being sold semi openly? Do you think this is largely down to the price hike in Mounjaro, or just because so many people just want to be ‘thin’ regardless of any health risks?

Interested to hear views, thoughts and experiences! (No, I am not a journo either, but didn’t want to ask this in AIBU as it always seems to turn into a pile on!)

I would never buy GLP-1 medication from anywhere other than a reputable online pharmacy. Was on MJ for 12 months and was quite scared of side effects or jabbing myself to start with even though it was absolutely the genuine thing. I got mine from Superdrug for ages even though they were not the cheapest because I wanted a name I recognised that I'd used before.

Fuck around and find out.

Personally I'd be frightened of the risk.

My guess is it's not related to the MJ price hike because Wegovy is similar/bit lower than MJ used to be before summer 2025. So it would make more sense to move to that rather than any old shit you can't vouch for, if you're someone who qualifies for WLIs and could afford the previous price. But maybe I'm wrong.

Unfortunately people read posts from the school of reddit and believe them when they hear nonsense like 3rd party tested by <insert name of plausible lab> and think that somehow means they can trust the sample was genuine, the testing took place, it happens on every batch, the supply chain is regulated etc.

Anyone risking it based off strangers on the internet needs their head examined.

I find it fascinating that people are prepared to buy substances from illegal websites that could be anything (and have been proved to be various substances that aren't what they claim), mix them up with water themselves and then inject it. There is so much opportunity for poor hygiene, contamination, poor storage practices, adulteration, mistakes on mixing, and so on. I always think of the case of a poor chap who used caffeine powder (bought legitimately) but made an error in his understanding of mg and grams, and gave himself a huge overdose of caffeine (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60570470). The number of people taking legitimate WLI who don't understand the difference between volume in ml and dose strength in mg, and who can't calculate a simple percentage ratio is vast.

It's illegal to buy peptides, it's not a "grey" area. The websites know that the substances should not be sold, the fig leaf of "it's for research purposes" is total bollocks and they know it. It's just an impossible task to track and shut down these websites and organisations.

I don't know if people are ignorant of the risks and fooled by slightly competent looking websites, or if they are just desperate to lose weight and so will take risks where others wouldn't. Sometimes I think it's a deliberate anti-establishment, you're all sheep attitude.

You'll get posters on here soon no doubt who will explain that they send off samples of what they buy to some European lab who will test it and tell them what it is before they use it, so they are happy that what they are doing is "safe". Retatrutide hasn't successfully passed all the necessary clinical trials, no one can say it's safe yet.

I know a lot of people taking reta, they are taking it because it’s a lot cheaper than Mounjaro but I don’t think I could take the risk because you have no way of knowing what you are getting.

It's not just WLIs, there's currently a huge market for peptides for fitness use, eg BPC-157. Try googling Wolverine Stack, there are loads of places openly selling it for "research use". It's all over social media too.
Why anyone would inject something that isn't from a fully traceable, bona fide source is beyond me.
Anyway, pass the popcorn...

Most people who are prescribed WLIs get them from legitimate accredited pharmacies which are internet-based. The alternative is local pharmacies in person. A minority are prescribed via the NHS.

All that is completely different from buying what are at best unlicensed drugs without prescription off someone on the internet, mixing them yourself and injecting heaven knows what. That is lunacy.

I am on a dog walk at the moment so this is providing plenty of info to keep me amused. I have never heard of Wolverine Stack. I know insulin can be used by body builders but I don't know how it can work or wouldn't be incredibly dangerous.

@SilenceInside I agree completely! The ad's that I am now getting all seem to involve lots of little bottles so presumably people have to mix whatever is in them. Awful as this may sound, considering they're gullible enough to have bought it in the first place, I also tend to assume that they aren't bright enough to get dosages / mixing or whatever else you need to do right as well. At least with the official route there are clear instructions. Perhaps there is with Reta too but I haven't looked for any.

@hay5689 how many are 'a lot' and how long have they been on it? Do you think there is also a placebo effect, or are their symptoms with the drug very strong?

I would never do it. I have no way of knowing what is actually in the medication, best-case scenario it’s something that won’t harm me (not even thinking about whether it would do what it claims in terms of weight loss), worst-case it contains something that kills me or causes lasting damage.

I watched a BBC documentary about a gang selling steroids - seeing where they mixed up the batches, in a dingy warehouse, in disgusting old plastic buckets, was really eye-opening. I imagine that’s the kind of place that the “peptides” and “reta” on the black market are batched up for sale. I also saw another documentary about the grey market Mounjaro for sale via WhatsApp groups, you could buy batches of the empty pens wholesale from China and fill them up with anything. Not worth the risk!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002gjgd/confessions-of-a-steroid-gang

@WeAllHaveWings The Reddit view (I don't often look at Reddit tbh) is like a whole different world as far as WLI's are involved! I initially wondered if it was posters from the US but, no, from the UK.

Did many of you watch the BBC programme a while back on buying things like Ozempic online? They sent a lot off for testing and so many had little to none of the drug they thought they were getting in them.

Also, the idea of injecting something - I know it's not ideal either but if you took something orally and had a sudden nasty reaction, at least you might be able to have your stomach pumped. It's not like you can uninject!

@ChiaraMontague Wow! I have a vague idea about the steroid angle, but had no idea you could buy pens to fill yourself and sell. I am not surprised though, I suppose there will always be someone willing to buy it too. It's a shame after so much body positivity in recent years that we seem to be going backwards to an unhealthy extreme.

Forgot to say, people on those threads can be so naive. Think of how much money WLI make big pharma and how aggressively patents for ANY drugs are defended.
And yet somehow a new drug that is still not cleared for humans is so widely available that they can buy it from Facebook/Reddit/WhatsApp groups? There’s NO way a pharmaceutical company would let their latest cash cow get out there - they’ll be looking to extract maximum money from reta long after the Mounjaro patent has expired and generic versions make it cheaper.

They aren't taking reta though. It's a similar compound created from Chinese ingredients in some basement laboratory under who knows what conditions and injected into people's bodies. It's madness.

Excellent point.

However, lets pretend the people who say they are taking this stuff really are taking it - how are they getting any results? Or are many of them bots to try and hook people into buying them?

I think this is one of the documentaries I’ve seen, someone basically injected pure insulin from one of the WLI pens and nearly went blind as a result? So scary!

They probably are having results. The compounds are pretty similar to the actual drug.

I take insulin as I am a Type 1 diabetic. I know how potent it is, and how little I need to go hypo. It certainly isn't even vaguely close to the doses of Mounjaro or Ozempic. I'm amazed they 'got away with' just nearly going blind tbh.

I also wondered if these online drugs could be things like amphetamines...?

For me these illegal drugs are ok till they aren’t, and it just takes one dodgy batch to kill someone, so far the legit drugs are clearly very safe, some of the safest available. The onky deaths we have seen are on the grey market ones.the issue is you will never know when uouve a dodgy batch,

people think as their mate is doing it, or it was fine last month it will be fine this month, but that’s not how it works. They are injecting themselves with a substance with no quality control on it, and it poses a risk to life. Every single time they inject they risk their life, be it from death or a life limiting impact. And that damage maybe seen immediately or it maybe seen years down the line when your kidneys start failing or your heart damage becomes apparent.

i can see the temptation, the cost of the meds are so high. People want to be slim, few want to be fat, they see others doing it and think it must be safe, so I will too, I can’t afford or access legitimately. So they take the risk.

Once sane people are now injecting themselves repeatedly with illegal meds with no controls in place. Such is the desire to be slim.

No I don’t think so, it appears it’s cheap Chinese copies of the real thing, the issue is not it’s something else masquerading as glp’s. The issue is there is no control over the manufacture or supply chain to ensure fit for humans,