06-02-2016, 02:48 PM
I agree with the people saying blisters don't guarantee it is genuine.
The situation varies a bit between pills. For example, it is normal for Krka's Apaurin to come loose. Yet it is regarded as one of the best brands of diazepam. I have had Apaurin blistered and boxed, direct from the country in which it is manufactured. There was absolutely no difference in the pills - blistered and unblistered were both genuine. If I remember rightly Krka sell Apaurin loose in bottles for hospitals and pharmacies.
Now to Roche's Valium which generally comes blistered. This has been widely copied and faked over the years. Fake can mean no active ingredient, or it can be what you might call a "good fake" that does contain about the right amount of the active ingredient. But there are still so many issues about the conditions in which it was made (bathtub diazepam anyone?), and what they have used for filler.
Real pills that are pressed with a break-line (i.e. to split the pill in half) have been mixed so the active ingredient is dispersed evenly throughout the pill. So if you have a 10mg Apaurin and you snap it in half, each part will be very close to 5mg. An under appreciated issue with fakes is that even if they are dosed correctly, they can be pressed with the break-line on to match the genuine article, yet not be properly mixed. That's bad news for anyone doing a diazepam taper. BTW, the lack of break-line does not necessarily mean something is fake - it might just be there is no plausible need to break the pill (e.g. if already a low dose).
About five years ago a source told me that loose mano diazepam were being chopped into three parts, and then pressed into full size "10mg" pills in Scotland. (I'm fairly sure it was manos being used - they were the really tiny little pills.) Apparently those pills were sold in blisters as Roche, but were dosed at roughly 3mg. Now if you snapped one of those in half you might or might not get the bit with the active ingredient.
The situation varies a bit between pills. For example, it is normal for Krka's Apaurin to come loose. Yet it is regarded as one of the best brands of diazepam. I have had Apaurin blistered and boxed, direct from the country in which it is manufactured. There was absolutely no difference in the pills - blistered and unblistered were both genuine. If I remember rightly Krka sell Apaurin loose in bottles for hospitals and pharmacies.
Now to Roche's Valium which generally comes blistered. This has been widely copied and faked over the years. Fake can mean no active ingredient, or it can be what you might call a "good fake" that does contain about the right amount of the active ingredient. But there are still so many issues about the conditions in which it was made (bathtub diazepam anyone?), and what they have used for filler.
Real pills that are pressed with a break-line (i.e. to split the pill in half) have been mixed so the active ingredient is dispersed evenly throughout the pill. So if you have a 10mg Apaurin and you snap it in half, each part will be very close to 5mg. An under appreciated issue with fakes is that even if they are dosed correctly, they can be pressed with the break-line on to match the genuine article, yet not be properly mixed. That's bad news for anyone doing a diazepam taper. BTW, the lack of break-line does not necessarily mean something is fake - it might just be there is no plausible need to break the pill (e.g. if already a low dose).
About five years ago a source told me that loose mano diazepam were being chopped into three parts, and then pressed into full size "10mg" pills in Scotland. (I'm fairly sure it was manos being used - they were the really tiny little pills.) Apparently those pills were sold in blisters as Roche, but were dosed at roughly 3mg. Now if you snapped one of those in half you might or might not get the bit with the active ingredient.