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Methadone Users Warned

Tchort

Tchort

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Mar 25, 2008
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Evening Telegraph

6/5/2009

Recovering drug addicts who get behind the wheel under the influence of heroin substitute methadone could find themselves before a sheriff, authorities in Dundee have warned (writes Graeme Ogston).
A Dundee woman was fined £300 and banned for driving for 18 months this week after admitting being unfit through drink or drugs on Clepington Road last month.
The court was told the 29-year-old was prescribed 95mls of methadone daily but hadn’t been told she should not drive.

However, Sergeant Rachael Francis from Tayside Police’s road policing unit said that anyone in any doubt of their ability to drive “shouldn’t be on the road”.

She said, “The danger of any drug, including methadone, is that the driver’s perception can change and they may not be able to react in the same way.

“Even with a prescribed medicine like methadone, it is the responsibility of the driver to assess whether they are fit to drive.”

Roadside drug analysis equipment is not currently used by forces in the UK.

The Government is considering the introduction of “drugalysers”, although it is believed these would focus on those driving under the influence of illegal drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine.

Officers must prove by conducting an impairment test that a motorist’s driving has been affected by drug use.

Drivers suspected of being under the influence must undertake tests including walking in a straight line.

Those failing the test are taken to a police station to have a blood or urine sample taken.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Drugs Forum said that while recorded instances of driving under the influence of the methadone were “very rare”, they were not unknown.

The forum, a partnership set up to combat substance abuse problems north of the border, said in its Methadone At Work booklet that the ability to drive “depends on the individual’s response to the drug”.

The booklet states that, “The Road Traffic Act requires licence holders or applicants to tell the DVLA of ‘any disability likely to affect safe driving’.

“Drug use, including methadone, is considered to be a ‘disability’ in this context.”
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http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2009/06/05/story13253377t0.shtm
 
No issues here. If you're impaired, it's a dui. Doesn't matter if it's from something prescribed, otc, illicit, etc.
 
This is sort of a personal issue with me. Despite not being impaired by my daily Methadone dose, I am constantly annoyed by people who know about my being in MMT commenting on 'do you feel ok to drive?' "you shouldnt drive after you get that medicine" etc. Or, if a car accident were to occur, I know that MMT would be blamed.

Yes, it should be a given that those driving impaired are fair game for breaking the law and putting others at risk.

I am worried that local police will get the wrong idea and begin targeting Methadone clinic patients as they leave the clinic for DUI's, just for being on Methadone and driving (whether being impaired or not).

Though this article is from the UK, where they don't have Methadone clinics so such profiling would be more difficult I suppose.
 
Here they make you sign a paper saying that you're breaking the law if you drive while on methadone.

Is that not US-wide?
 
methadones suck, I dont know why anybody would take them things. they are way to easy to O.D on Ive had 9 friends in tha last 9 years OD from takin methadone . I would shoot up dope all day be4 I would take dones . kids think " well if i can take hand fulls of all these other pain pills then I can take a bunch of methadone " and they cant . its becuz if u take 4 today and then 4 tomorrow its like takin 8 and if u take 4 tha next day then its 12 in your system . all u gotta do then is take so much as one xanax and go to sleep and your not gonna wake up
 
Hammilton said:
Here they make you sign a paper saying that you're breaking the law if you drive while on methadone.

Is that not US-wide?
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I've never heard of this (haven't had to sign anything like that at the three MMT clinics I've been to).

It doesn't make sense to assume anyone who doses Methadone everyday will be impaired from it; under MMT protocol, a person who becomes sedated from their daily dose are on too high a dose.

Under that logic everyone who is prescribed Benzodiazepines for anxiety, Tricyclics for depression, Z-drugs to sleep, narcotics for pain, etc could not ever drive a car or be at risk of going to jail on a DUI.
 
Hammilton said:
Here they make you sign a paper saying that you're breaking the law if you drive while on methadone.

Is that not US-wide?
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never heard of this either

when you are taking a dose of a drug that keeps you normal due to dependency, it often is not interfering with driving ability. i take methadone, and i don't drive during its peak effect because i'm a little new to it and it still makes me tired during peak effect, but by T+12-18h i am in slight withdrawal already

i am used to taking three small daily doses of pods (very long acting) and having very steady plasma concentration of opiate (and i didnt even get high usually). the methadone clinic, ironically, is getting me high since they only give you one big dose daily. i told them i'm above baseline and think i need several smaller doses since i'm high in the morning and sick late at night, but they just respond by increasing my dose so that i'm not sick so that i won't relapse 8) anyway, some of that was a lil off topic
 
It is entirely possible to have your daily dose broken up into 2 doses to be taken 12 hours apart. My clinic does this for many people.

Have you met with your counselor about it? Maybe if you print out some information and present it to her about fast metabolizers, it may help.
 
Hammilton said:
Here they make you sign a paper saying that you're breaking the law if you drive while on methadone.

Is that not US-wide?
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Nope. I live in a middle sized texan town, and there would be NO ONE at the clinic if you couldn't drive there. Its like a 3 minutes drive from the closest house, and a 15 minute drive from the center of town. It is litterally out in the middle of a field almost.
 
It is entirely possible to have your daily dose broken up into 2 doses to be taken 12 hours apart. My clinic does this for many people.

Have you met with your counselor about it? Maybe if you print out some information and present it to her about fast metabolizers, it may help.
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yeah ive told her about it, my clinic doesnt do two-doses. they open around 5am and close arond noon. they do it in really rare cases, but i'm thinking of seeing how suboxone does

how does suboxone relate, in terms of * sweating * increased body temp * hot flashes ? i know they are making hydromorphone pellets because these and constipation are less of a side effect with hydromorph
 
qwe said:
yeah ive told her about it, my clinic doesnt do two-doses. they open around 5am and close arond noon. they do it in really rare cases, but i'm thinking of seeing how suboxone does

how does suboxone relate, in terms of * sweating * increased body temp * hot flashes ? i know they are making hydromorphone pellets because these and constipation are less of a side effect with hydromorph
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Buprenorphine doesn't carry any of the typical Methadone side effects.

I found Bupe to have its own unpleasant side effects (stimulation, nightmares, lack of craving control, etc).
 
^ eek. i have very vivid dreams, id hate for them to turn into nightmares. lack of craving control means the opiate isnt doing its freakin job. and stimulation (all stimulants, from ritalin to meth) makes me feel zombified and horrible

i guess i aint switchin to subox!
 
qwe said:
^ eek. i have very vivid dreams, id hate for them to turn into nightmares. lack of craving control means the opiate isnt doing its freakin job. and stimulation (all stimulants, from ritalin to meth) makes me feel zombified and horrible

i guess i aint switchin to subox!
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You do have other options. A CYP450 inhibitor will increase the duration of Methadone's effects, which may be enough to keep your blood serum levels high enough to keep you well. Sodium Bicarb capsules (urinary alkiner) increase the time Methadone is in the blood without being destroyed by the metabolic process. Combined you may find relief.

But be warned, if you started taking them everyday, you would need to continue taking them, and stopping would result in withdrawal (as potentiators do the equivalent to taking more Methadone).
 
^ Are you serious man? You think wasted people should just be able to drive around and be a risk to everyone else? I am all for personal freedom but when you are putting other people at risk through your own actions that is when a behaviour becomes unacceptable imho.

I think its pretty gay for a blanket ban on driving on methadone since most of the time it is not getting people high but just keeping them well. I would say an opiate addict is in better shape to drive if they are well thanks to methadone than if they are a withdrawing mess.
 
The laws against driving while intoxicated and/or under the influence or however it's phrased in your jurisdiction for the most part ruin more lives than they save. If you look at the statistics, the amount of people driving over the legal limit of blood alcohol content at all times during the day is quite high, and only an arbitrary and tiny portion of those people are caught on a daily basis.

Punishing people for risky behavior instead of actual harm caused is injustice. DUI penalties could serve their purpose in the criminal justice system just fine as a sentence modification for convictions of other crimes which actually happened (like vehicular manslaughter, vehicular assault, reckless driving); it doesn't need to have its own criminal statutes.

DUI enforcement and all the loss of personal liberty caused by the enforcement of DUI law has a negative impact on the American way of life and culture that could be compared to the War on Drugs, but obviously more limited in scope.
 
A CYP450 inhibitor will increase the duration of Methadone's effects, which may be enough to keep your blood serum levels high enough to keep you well.
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they test for tagamet and you get in trouble for it 8)

they are lowering my dose, making me more sick and with restless leg syndrome, because i have a tiny buzz during the peak. as if the buzz wont go away when my body gets used to the dose anyway. grr
 
qwe said:
they test for tagamet and you get in trouble for it 8)

they are lowering my dose, making me more sick and with restless leg syndrome, because i have a tiny buzz during the peak. as if the buzz wont go away when my body gets used to the dose anyway. grr
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My initial reaction to a Tagamet screen was laughter. Though, my clinic tests for Quinine (and counts it as a positive screen for an illegal drug). I still haven't figured out if it's due to people shooting Quinine for a rush while on MMT, or as a sign of recent Heroin use (as Quinine is a common cut).

I'm sorry to hear about that. Maybe call your local non-profit group who monitor drug treatment facilities and tell them about your clinic/situation, sometimes they pressure facilities that aren't up to par. Just a shot in the dark though, that may backfire.
 
For those of you who are not Americans, outside of the few major metro areas there are NO options besides private car ownership. There is also a culture of not having a car being demeaning for an adult.

Outside of large cities there is no way to even get to methadone clinics besides by car, is your friend/neighbor going to rise at five am to drive you to get your morning dose before work? Sometimes there isn't even taxi service in these rural areas.

So flat out outside of New York City it would be impossible for patients to get to and from the clinic and it would be impossible for them to work, talk about a stigma!

This is just another way to marginalize addicts, how come no one is telling the millions of Americans taking opiates daily for pain its illegal for them to drive.
 
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