The stuff that it’s difficult to impossible to stock up on. Medications. There’s some of them that you can’t legally stock up on. You can’t just have a six month supply of things like adderal, opiates, benzodiazepines, and that kind of stuff. Then there’s meds that can’t be kept in home and stay at full potency for very long. That’s pretty much any meds for autoimmune disorders.
Like, my wife takes three meds that can’t be kept in storage without being useless at some point. They get shipped straight from the manufacturer and have to be kept refrigerated during shipping.
Water and shelf stable foods are easy to keep stocked up, and so are water purification items.
After meds, it’s ammo. Finite resource that requires a lot of space and tools to replenish by reloading. You can stock up on ammo, and it’ll store very well. But it’s expensive to do so, and storage space for it isn’t exactly infinite.
We’re up next to the mountains, and we get (or used to, the last few years have been milder) iced or snowed in a few times a year, so we’re used to keeping staples in stock and replacing them as they’re used. And it’s easy enough to rotate out water in storage for fresh by using the stored water for things other than cooking and drinking. Besides, there’s only so much water you can store realistically, so purification methods are a higher priority if you don’t have the kind of income/wealth to really bunker up.
We keep a week’s worth of water for the four of us. Assuming we get rain during whatever it is, it’s realistic to be able to hold out for much longer than that with the bulk staples we keep. Beans, rice, that kind of thing.
But meds? There’s only so much you can do about those.
Most meds can store for a very long time, like years if kept cool and in the dark (the US Army did a study because they need to know, I don’t have a link handy, sorry). There are some exceptions (which you noted) - like insulin. Though I think even it can be stored for quite some time if it’s kept refrigerated. Meds are definitely among the highest value because of limited storage capability.
Most meds, yeah. Alas, for our household, there’s a total of four meds that can’t be stored. Which, it is what it is, they’re all miles ahead of the meds that came before them in efficacy.
Well, I take Adderall for my ADHD. In a pinch, I think microdosing meth might work. But if the government collapses, I have no qualms knocking over a couple pharmacies to get my subscription to a functional brain filled the hard way.
Honestly? That’s my plan. Ignore grocery stores, if shit really does hit the fan, I go after a pharmacy. I likely won’t be the only one thinking that way, but I’m meaner ;)
I know how our closest one is laid out, and I know what stuff to grab to keep us going as a group, plus stuff for emergencies beyond our normal meds.
We do have a supply of the meds that we can legally get a stockpile of. I have one that I have a three month supply backed up after a previous supply chain issue. Talked to my provider, explained my intent, and they actually hooked me up with extras so that I could just rotate out the oldest bottles as I get new ones. We’ve done that with a few meds across the household.
You can grow any off-the-shelf poppy (from any garden store)… They’re all opium poppies. Macerate the whole plant in any alcohol to make laudanum. Bonus round, opiates are fully safe to treat pain in dogs (and most mammals) as well.
You can save some seed and grow a new batch next season.
The stuff that it’s difficult to impossible to stock up on. Medications. There’s some of them that you can’t legally stock up on. You can’t just have a six month supply of things like adderal, opiates, benzodiazepines, and that kind of stuff. Then there’s meds that can’t be kept in home and stay at full potency for very long. That’s pretty much any meds for autoimmune disorders.
Like, my wife takes three meds that can’t be kept in storage without being useless at some point. They get shipped straight from the manufacturer and have to be kept refrigerated during shipping.
Water and shelf stable foods are easy to keep stocked up, and so are water purification items.
After meds, it’s ammo. Finite resource that requires a lot of space and tools to replenish by reloading. You can stock up on ammo, and it’ll store very well. But it’s expensive to do so, and storage space for it isn’t exactly infinite.
We’re up next to the mountains, and we get (or used to, the last few years have been milder) iced or snowed in a few times a year, so we’re used to keeping staples in stock and replacing them as they’re used. And it’s easy enough to rotate out water in storage for fresh by using the stored water for things other than cooking and drinking. Besides, there’s only so much water you can store realistically, so purification methods are a higher priority if you don’t have the kind of income/wealth to really bunker up.
We keep a week’s worth of water for the four of us. Assuming we get rain during whatever it is, it’s realistic to be able to hold out for much longer than that with the bulk staples we keep. Beans, rice, that kind of thing.
But meds? There’s only so much you can do about those.
Most meds can store for a very long time, like years if kept cool and in the dark (the US Army did a study because they need to know, I don’t have a link handy, sorry). There are some exceptions (which you noted) - like insulin. Though I think even it can be stored for quite some time if it’s kept refrigerated. Meds are definitely among the highest value because of limited storage capability.
Sure they can be stored, it’s getting them where is the problem.
Most of my meds I can only get one month supply at a time.
Most meds, yeah. Alas, for our household, there’s a total of four meds that can’t be stored. Which, it is what it is, they’re all miles ahead of the meds that came before them in efficacy.
Well, I take Adderall for my ADHD. In a pinch, I think microdosing meth might work. But if the government collapses, I have no qualms knocking over a couple pharmacies to get my subscription to a functional brain filled the hard way.
Isn’t there already a shortage in our current semi functioning society?
And pharmacies are going to be one of the first places looted, usually by drug dealers and addicts.
They might leave antibiotics and stuff, but they’d likely realize the value of that stuff.
They sure as shit aren’t leaving something that’s already a street drug.
Well, there’s no reason I can’t make my own if there’s no government.
Hold on, downloading and caching all the synthesis and patent applications for Adderall and amphetamine salts I can find.
Honestly? That’s my plan. Ignore grocery stores, if shit really does hit the fan, I go after a pharmacy. I likely won’t be the only one thinking that way, but I’m meaner ;)
I know how our closest one is laid out, and I know what stuff to grab to keep us going as a group, plus stuff for emergencies beyond our normal meds.
We do have a supply of the meds that we can legally get a stockpile of. I have one that I have a three month supply backed up after a previous supply chain issue. Talked to my provider, explained my intent, and they actually hooked me up with extras so that I could just rotate out the oldest bottles as I get new ones. We’ve done that with a few meds across the household.
Go to a vet hospital, many carry human safe (in a pinch) antibiotics, steroids, etc.
You can grow any off-the-shelf poppy (from any garden store)… They’re all opium poppies. Macerate the whole plant in any alcohol to make laudanum. Bonus round, opiates are fully safe to treat pain in dogs (and most mammals) as well.
You can save some seed and grow a new batch next season.