In many countries, steroids are legal and even can be purchased over the counter. As a results many of these injectable anabolics are administered by the user. Below is information aiding in the conversion of such drugs. This article does not endorse the use of illegal drugs.

I. U.= international unit. This is a unit used to measure the activity (that is, the effect) of many vitamins and drugs. For each substance to which this unit applies, there is an international agreement specifying the biological effect expected with a dose of 1 IU. Other quantities of the substance are then expressed as multiples of this standard. This also means that this measurment is not based on sheer volume or weight of the substance, but rather the effect.

ml = milliliter. This is a VOLUME measurement. it is 1/1000 of a liter. when talking about water or similar liquids, it is equivalent to one cubic centimeter.

cc = cubic centimeter. This is also a VOLUME measurement. Most syringes measure their capacity in cc’s. If you have a 5cc syringe, it will hold ~5ml of liquid in it.

mg = milligram. This is a WEIGHT measurement. It is 1/1000 of a gram. the amount of chemical substance is often measured in milligrams. For injectable solutions, this will be reported as a concentration of weight to volume, such as mg/ml (milligrams per milliliter). In the case of orally administered substances, the weight of chemical is labeled, athough the actual weight of the pill/capsule may be much higher, because of the use of filler substances. This means that a small pill may be much more potent than a large pill, so don’t judge a pill based on its size, but the actual amount of substance for which it is labeled as.

mcg = microgram = 1/1000 of a mg (milligram) There are one thousand micrograms in one milligram.

Conversion factors:

1000 mcg (microgram) = 1 mg (milligram)

1000 mg (milligram) = 1 g (gram)

1000 g (gram) = 1 kg (kilogram)

1000 ml (milliliter) = 1 liter

1ml (water) = 1cc (water)

1ml (oil) ~ 1cc (oil) (~ denotes approximately equal to)

Examples putting it all together

Say a user has some Drug XYX from two different companies. One is ‘XYX-300’ from QV, and one from BM which is ‘XYZ-100’. Both of these are XYZ DRUG, but they have different concentrations. What this means is….

for the XYZ-300:

if you take 1 ml (one milliliter) of this solution, it will take up ~1cc (one cubic centimeter) of space in the syringe. There will be 300mg (three hundred milligrams) of XYZ in this dosage.

for the XYZ-100:

if you take 1 ml (one milliliter) of this solution, it will take up ~1cc (one cubic centimeter) of space in the syringe. There will be 100mg (one hundred milligrams) of XYZ in this dosage.

If you put the syringes side by side, they appear the exact same, so what is the difference? the XYZ-300 has a concentration of 300mg/ml, while the XYZ-100 only has a concentration of 100mg/ml. This means that the syringe with XYZ-300 has three times (3x) the amount of DRUG XYZ in the same exact volume as the syringe with XYZ-100.