Help defining a heroin taper regime.

[Dropit]

I have been binging, recently unknowing to the fact that it has now been a month of everyday use (us users know how time flies, and how it creeps up). I wish to take a break, as well as reduce tolerance. This is mostly because, due to work, I cannot afford to get sick. I have binged before, at a maximum of typically a week and a half. I usually go cold turkey at that point, and that is fairly difficult as-is.

So, I am afraid to go through withdrawal with my current usage. I know it is difficult to reduce usage, but I believe I have the willpower to do so. I have been reducing well for the past few days.

My ROA is insufflation (I have never IV'd). I eyeball my doses, being experienced enough. I estimate my usage to be between 30-50mg per line (I sometimes re-dose later in the day) prior to reduction. The dosages may sound small, but this is pretty fire dope, the best I have had.

I am now taking about a third of what I usually take! I dose around 1-2PM, but by midnight I am beginning to withdraw again, so I redose then.
I think this is good so far, being my third day of tapering. Is that okay?

What I ask:

• Does anyone have experience with this, and if so, what would be a good regime to completely avoid (or at least minimise) withdrawal?
• Is it true that getting high (i.e. treating yourself to a big line) once during the taper takes you back several days, in terms of physical withdrawal?

I would really appreciate any input. Thank you!

EDIT: I am now considering tapering using 1-2mg of a single 8mg Suboxone strip to detox for a few days. Would this be a better option?

 

[Phil.McKeer]

I always found it difficult to taper down on H, but I did smoke it and it is a pretty fiendish ROA.

The idea behind every taper is you want to reduce your overall daily dose by "X%" every day until you're down to very little, then stop once your body is used to the now ultra-low dose.

From my experience with buprenorphine (which is way different than H and may not be applicable to your case) taking a large amount at once after having taken lower doses for a while, it doesn't significantly affect the future (i.e., I take 0.25mg/day of buprenorphine currently, and if I were to take, say, 4mg tomorrow, I could go right back to 0.25mg the next day without adverse effects).

If you decide to take any amount of that strip, make sure you're in FULL WITHDRAWAL (people say 24 hours but judging by time can get faulty, so I judge it by how my body feels). When your eyes and nose are flowing rivers, you're sneezing 15 times in a row, have goosebumps and are going hot/cold, and your legs are kicking, then you're ready to start your buprenorphine regime. And don't take the whole dose at once. Start with ~0.5mg, wait an hour, take another, wait another hour, if no pwd is present then you can take whatever amount.

Good luck.

 

[Keif' Richards]

This statement assumes that you have willpower. I, despite all of my trying, have never actually had the willpower to taper myself down from short-acting Opioids like Heroin. I would always make an excuse to take extra or to take an extra shot. It was inevitable, so eventually I just gave up trying and have since used drugs like Methadone and Buprenorphine to help me get clean. So, assuming you can...

I would figure that an accurate scale would be pretty essential for an accurate taper. In the same vein, I think buying the same product for the entire taper, preferably all at once, would be key. This way you don't end up over or under-dosing yourself. The key here really is to just not get high and to keep in mind that there will be some discomfort throughout this process. This doesn't mean it has to be hellacious, but it means that certain parts are going to be unenjoyable. You're going to want to get high very badly during these times, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that.

As far as the tolerance question goes. I think that saying "one line will set you back several days" is probably a little bit exaggerated. If you get "high" and not just "well" during your taper, you will be setting yourself back some. The most important thing is to always be deescalating your dose, which is where the willpower comes in.

Your best option for success, statistically, is going to be using the Buprenorphine (Suboxone, Subutex). You are simply more likely to succeed with medication assisting you in your detox.