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Sourcing safely

What "pharmaceutical grade" means, which is nothing

Started 3 June 2026 · 11 replies · 72 hearts · read 1k times

TaviaPalermo, IT · 3 June 2026
2 months ago

What "pharmaceutical grade" means, which is nothing — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Evidence question. I would rather have an honest "we do not know" than a confident answer.

I am asking because two people I trust have told me opposite things and both of them cited the same study.

Everything discussed in this circle is research-use-only material and is not approved for use in a person, and my question is about the evidence rather than about use.

If anybody has the primary source, I would be very grateful for it — I have been going round in circles.

24

SaskiaThe Hague, NL
#1

Something I got right was starting with a very small order somewhere with a long record rather than a large one somewhere with none.

4

BramberSteyning, UK
#2

What I found useful was that our pages set out what can be checked next to what cannot, rather than giving a score and leaving it there.

6

SunilFacilitatorBirmingham, UK
#3

Holding a boundary: nothing on this site is a recommendation to source anything, and buying outside a prescription carries a risk this community cannot remove.

12me too 6

GittaBonn, DE
#4

Read, understood, and glad you are here.

3

PerrinNice, FR
#5

Coming back to what Sunil wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

Something worth stating plainly: sterility and endotoxin are separate assays and a purity certificate says nothing about either.

4

NolCork, IE
#6

Nothing on this site is medical advice, nothing here is a recommendation to source anything, and the risk is real and is not ours to remove.

9

NylaNairobi, KE
#7

Coming back to say I asked all three questions, got proper answers to all three, and that the asking was the most useful thing I did.

7

Ollie OPeterhead, UK
#8

Nol, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

The plain position of this circle does not change: buying outside a prescription means no pharmacist checked your dose, no regulator inspected the line, and nobody is accountable to you. We cannot remove that.

8me too 9

NazneenDhaka, BD
#9

Picking up Nol’s point rather than starting a new one.

My honest position is that I would rather this community discussed this openly than left the question to be answered by somebody selling.

4me too 3

SunilFacilitatorBirmingham, UK
#10

Noticing a habit rather than anybody in particular: a small study cited three times is still one study, and a page can look well sourced when it is quoting itself.

9

LucasSão Paulo, BR
#11

My approach is to ask three questions before ordering anywhere, take the answers as data, and treat a non-answer as an answer.

6