Costco Pharmacist Refuses to Sell Syringes to Trans Man
The Kansas City Star as “Dave,” says he visited the Linwood Boulevard Costco on October 9 to pick up packs of 100 syringes, which are cheaper at Costco when bought in bulk compared to other retailers.Typically, Costco sells the syringes without a prescription.
While they’re not solely designated for insulin injections for diabetics, that is generally their most common use.But Dave had been using the smaller, thinner insulin needles because they made his regular testosterone injections less painful.
When he sought out the syringes, initially there seemed to be no problem — until the pharmacist at Costco took issue with how Dave intended to use them.“They got weird about it,” Dave told the Star. “The pharmacist, I guess, overheard and she came out, and she’s like, ‘This won’t work for testosterone.’ She’s like, ‘Well, we won’t sell it to you unless you have your doctor call it in.'”Dave called his doctor’s office, but it was closed at the time.
He didn’t feel like arguing with the pharmacist about how he’d been purchasing the smaller insulin syringes without a prescription for years, so he decided to leave the store.An assistant general manager at the Linwood Costco told the Star that he was unaware of the incident and couldn’t comment.
