Opioids Methadone Mega Thread and FAQ v 2.0

[thelastclubkid]

Exactly! I was curious about this so I just asked my nurse at the clinic yesterday when I went and dosed. I asked to see a bottle of 5mg methadone that is already prepacked at vista pharms and heat sealed and delivered to my clinic.. A 5 mg sealed bottle has about 1or maybe 2 drops of methadone and it does not even cover the bottom of the bottle. The nurse said we don't have very many ppl on 5 mg's or 10 even. But when we do she just opens the bottle and mixes it with some water and gives it to the patient. I think once you get below 20 mg's they have to start adding water to the doses. I know right now im at 100 and when I drink my liguid the nurse takes my bottle and puts some water in the and I drink again to get any remaining liquid out.. I am really worrying about this taper but not the first part..it's the dreaded last 5 mg's that has me worried..I think I am just going to stock up on some benzo's and get some clonidine those last 2 weeks after I jump off!!

This has also sparked another question I have I need to look online to see... If its just a Georgia state law here but our nurses at my clinic do not pump the methadone it's already pre packaged...but I asked a buddy of mine who went to the same clinic as me back in 2005 he said the nurses did use a pump that calibrated your dose,but then switched to the prepackaged vistapharms methadone..so now the nurses don't have to do anything other than hand you the bottle and take the seal off. I wonder if it's like that in all of our state where the nurses don't actually dispense the methadone..

if you can get take home bottles by that point the easiest thing to do is split the bottles in half at the end.... alternately when i was at the end of my taper i could never get them to decrease me quickly enough (red tape) so when i would drink i would just drink like half the dose in front of them and throw the cup in the garbage... the nurses IMO never check if you actually drink the whole dose..

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

I have a question not sure if it goes here or elsewhere but i'll my chance. I hear that it is a lot easier to taper down and get rid of opiate management with bupe. What would be an equivalent dose of suboxone if I am taking 60mg of methadone ? I'm starting to have my takehomes january 30th and I'm starting to be really fucking sick of being in shackles by the government. I want to switch to bupe and get done with the treatment as soon as possible. The scar on my right hand where I used to shoot up has faded and since the situation why I started to shoot up dilaudid has been fixed up here in canada (Generic Oxy ER), I want people here to remember I was never interested about getting high on opiates until pain problems surfaced and became unbearable 2 years ago. And believe me I will not abuse them, when i was just fine with oxycontin (i also could have OXY IR/Supeudol but somehow when my guy who has huge pain problems and is older wasn't getting oxycontins anymore he somehow wasnt getting these things anymore either). 10-20mg of oxycodone a day was fine for my pain problems back then. The problems only became HUGE problems because of dilaudid's short action and low BA and the rest is history.

 

[Chrispilly]

New methadone guy

I am new to this site. I've been a heroin junkie for many years and I've been on methadone for five years. Now the clinic wants me on a 20 day taper due to a positive test fOr benzos. I've only been without methadone (nothing else) for two weeks. I'm scared and I would like to know how this will be. I'm 29. I want off this sh•t. Any helpful ideas or info would be appreciated.

 

[majicBLUE]

@Chrispilly it's like coming off heroin, though the withdrawal is more severe. This is with cold turkey like I did off of 85mg's. It lasted like 2 months before I could finally get some decent sleep. A 20 day taper? Jesus, what the fuck? How much do you take? I failed for at least cocaine and/or benzo's on every drug test I took for 2+ years and the only thing I couldn't do was get take homes and go up by 10mg increment's, only 5mg's. That's crazy, i'm glad I didn't have your clinic. Honestly, i'd rather kick the smack again then go through complete methadone cold turkey.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

This is horrible. These people are insane. Here if you get caught taking things you arent supposed to other than weed, they just prolong the time you cannot have takehomes, or they remove your takehome privileges.

Thankfully I am scripted still valium and dexedrine (the latter I only take rarely since im done with college and cannot work due to temp disability, i use it only when I find some job in programming a small program for 75-200 dollars. Happens once or twice a month, i find em on those places where people describe projects they need done and pay you through paypal if they like the results.)

I am sorry. Tell yourself it isnt at least as painful as benzo withdrawal and will not last several months if not years. Strap yourself to a bed for 10 days. You should be fine afterwards...then comes the paws....or the pain will be back if you originally fell due to pain problems.

Be strong.

 

[thelastclubkid]

I have a question not sure if it goes here or elsewhere but i'll my chance. I hear that it is a lot easier to taper down and get rid of opiate management with bupe. What would be an equivalent dose of suboxone if I am taking 60mg of methadone ? I'm starting to have my takehomes january 30th and I'm starting to be really fucking sick of being in shackles by the government. I want to switch to bupe and get done with the treatment as soon as possible. The scar on my right hand where I used to shoot up has faded and since the situation why I started to shoot up dilaudid has been fixed up here in canada (Generic Oxy ER), I want people here to remember I was never interested about getting high on opiates until pain problems surfaced and became unbearable 2 years ago. And believe me I will not abuse them, when i was just fine with oxycontin (i also could have OXY IR/Supeudol but somehow when my guy who has huge pain problems and is older wasn't getting oxycontins anymore he somehow wasnt getting these things anymore either). 10-20mg of oxycodone a day was fine for my pain problems back then. The problems only became HUGE problems because of dilaudid's short action and low BA and the rest is history.

WD's from subs are even *longer* than from methadone... and you have to be below 25mg of methadone to switch to subs.. and you have to be in partial WD to make the switch... IMO i really dont understand why ppl think switching from one to the other for the purpose of quitting is even worth it since you still have to get off and go through even longer WD's...

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Citation needed about tapering sub being longer. As far as I know a lot of people switch to subs after tapering down methadone to between 20-30mg and then take bupe and get a much smoother ride when tapering. See there is no question about withdrawing here, i want to have the smoothest taper as possible with the least bad feelings possible.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

sorry for the double post but thiis is another related subject entirely,

also btw guys. if you get cravings of a needle rush while on methadone and not really craving for a huge opi high, I assume this is normal for those of us were shooting their DOC ? I noticed that weed does chase that craving for a sudden high. It has been a week where I didn't really want a opi rush but i wanted something to break the crushingly increasingly boring sobriety. Just 4 hot knife hits smoked slowly, I always do that anyway, i don't like to smoke huge amounts of weed at once, with the quality it has in canada, smoking it like this, very slowly is better and helps you control your dosage. I get into listening music again too. I've become so boring since on methadone, but I guess a huge part of me always wanted to be sedated, painfree and carefree....

Sigh indeed.

 

[SubDude]

I was on MMT for many yrs and switched to Subs from 80 mg tapered down to 30mg. Then induced on 12 mg subs. I found it pretty easy to taper down to .50mg subs but couldn't finish from there. [didn't try "comfort drugs after jump though] I think a big part is the duration of use along with overall health and age are big factors. I did it a couple of times when I was young and healthy and it was tolerable. Now... no way. Bottom line is if you want to be totally abstinent, then don't wait to you get into your 40's-50's.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Yes, i'm 30 right now and I want to be free from opiates before I turn 31, which right now seems a bit unrealistic so at least when I'm 31.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Bottom line is if you want to be totally abstinent, then don't wait to you get into your 40's-50's.

Quite true, man. Kicking gets harder and harder the older you get.. sure when you're young and strong you can battle through some hairy shit but once you start getting up there in age... the ball game changes. You don't want to be going through this shit and trying to kick when you're 40+... a lot of those guys who survived to that age and are still using... never come out of it, sadly. Their bodies are wrecked and it's so much harder to get clean. Plenty of people do it, mind you but... it's very hard.

 

[thelastclubkid]

Citation needed about tapering sub being longer. As far as I know a lot of people switch to subs after tapering down methadone to between 20-30mg and then take bupe and get a much smoother ride when tapering. See there is no question about withdrawing here, i want to have the smoothest taper as possible with the least bad feelings possible.

if you get a chance read this guys journal of his suboxone taper...

http://suboxonetaper.com/suboxone-taper/

his account is nearly identical to what i went through with methadone... except i my timeline was literally half of his... (e.g. so day 10 was his turning point whereas for me it was day 5..)

btw. im 40... i am in very good health but this is because i made a hugely concious decision to change many things in my life around about 3 years ago... for me the process of getting off of methadone started 2 years ago and this is the resolution... without that preparation i dont think it would have gone well at all...

 

[stivsmegg]

if you can get take home bottles by that point the easiest thing to do is split the bottles in half at the end.... alternately when i was at the end of my taper i could never get them to decrease me quickly enough (red tape) so when i would drink i would just drink like half the dose in front of them and throw the cup in the garbage... the nurses IMO never check if you actually drink the whole dose..

Yeah, where I live (mn)i have been at clinics that have both, my current one dispenses but I used to get the round vistapharm bottles at an old cclinic for pay, in lobby waiting right now

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Alright, the moment I was awaiting so bad. My first take home. I can bring one bottle of orange juice + methadone home. The addict in me is screaming, JUST TAKE HALF, MAYBE YOU'LL CATCH A BUZZ. I also have Atarax 50mg pills for various itching problems.

I know this is totally counter-productive. So harm reduction chimes in. Would taking like 1/4 of supposed dose for tomorrow with 100mg atarax just bring me out of the mundane sober life. If according to most people here I am shooting myself in the foot I will greatly reconsider. But since it is a once a week privilege...I wonder what could go wrong.

I can wait and be patient. I am much more hungry than anything since spending the afternoon at the hospital's outpatient clinic and telling my story 75 times and over to nurses docs, other patients etc. I'm gonna eat my cannelloni and await your replies, much more experienced users.

 

[thelastclubkid]

1/4 dose probably isnt going to do that much depending on what your dose level is... with methadone its a bit different because of how your body tissue absorbs some of the drug... you can still get high with it but its not like getting high on regular opiates; more just a more relaxed sedate feeling...

 

[hatrix]

For anyone interested in dosing with little to no opiate tolerance, I took 10mg of methadone the other night and got pretty high with a great nod. It seemed like a perfectly safe dose and I even (unnecessarily) thew in 0.25mg of alprazolam. I highly recommend against the addition of alprazolam for someone in the position of no tolerance. Other than that, great opiate high with plenty of euphoria. It felt, for me at least, very similar to the hydrocodone I had the night before but stronger.

 

[walterdini]

When I first got on the methadone, taking 1/4 - half my takehome ontop of my usual dose would give me noticable effects. I wouldn't get high, but those extra mgs of methadone in the afternoon were felt, and at the time, all I wanted was to feel a drug so it served its purpose. But having bEen on mmt for 1+ year and taking 140mg/day, I don't get anything from taking more methadone after my first dose. I've never tried taking the entire takehome bottle, but didn't seem worth it anyway.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Yes, that was a wise decision.

i've taken 100mg hydroxyzine and not even 1/4 more...realizing i was playing with fire...I did notice a small extra relaxation for 3 hours but not more. I can see it useful in case of a panic attack but not even then. I'm glad I will continue to impress my methadone docs with how much of a great patient I am, cheers.

 

[rob1895]

I'm on 350mg's of Methadone, split into 3 doeses of 120,110,@120mgs. I also take 4 2mg does of Klonipin. I have sever chronic pain,am 43, scared if anything else goes wrong pain wise, there won't be a thing that can be done. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[crzydiamond]

^wow. Speechless.

I was on MMT for years. The highest I maintained at was 95 mg, at which point I would nod out basically any time I sat down for more than 15 minutes. 350 mg, wow, for real I'm amazed you're awake and coherently typing

But yes, to your question, you would be in for a world of hurt. Nothing will come close to those doses. Have you ever tried to lessen those amounts? Even some?