Misc Can't Afford Suboxone, Any ideas?

I cant afford Suboxone, or the appointment. Any other ideas?

Maybe save up some money until you can afford it...It's either that, quit altogether, or continue using other opiates. I don't really know your situation so it's tough to sum up a good answer really. If you know you will have access to something soon, maybe you should try to wean yourself off little by little until you can afford the subs.

if we knew more about your situation you might get some more helpful answers.

hmmm...kratom?

Well Im trying to quit. But I can't. I just got out of a Crisis Center, and they withdrew me from everything, though its hard to stay clean when drugs make me feel better, i.e. happy, pain free, etc. Mostly I like heroin and tabs, I would take a lot of tabs everyday and function fine, even at work. But Im realizing I have a problem, and cant control my anger on drugs. I also get oxycodone when I can. I also like Klonopins and know the Suboxone wouldnt block thoughs, but they were pretty much just used until I could get whatever I was looking for. Im also going to NA, but its not stopping me alone. Ive been asked to think about going to drug rehab, but Idk.

If you end up being able to afford another doctors appointment, then you should look into this coupon to print out.

i am able to support my habit with PST.
it is hit-and-miss, but if you do it right, it can be good.
obviously you need to find a good source of seeds that aren't too washed, or too expensive.
it probably depends where you live as to whether or not this is an option for you. i realise that for a lot of people, it isn't a very helpful suggestion, but it works for me.
good luck - as an australian, i feel for you statesiders with your prohibitively expensive medical system. it's really not fair.

get it on the street. you can make 8 mg of suboxone last a long time.

How much (if any) suboxone do you have left? We can help you work out a taper plan to stretch out any suboxone that you may have, over a longer period of time. I see that you mention using oxy as well, so just make sure that you don't use it for at least a day before and after using the suboxone, since you can experience precipitated withdrawal from taking suboxone to close to your last dose of oxy (or any other opiates for that matter), and if you take the oxy too soon after you last dose of suboxone, it will be blocked any won't have any affect on you.

Methadone clinics are alot cheaper.. If you have one near by and can't do it without help I would go there.. Worked for me.. When I first started looking into it I found that it would cost me around 1000.00 a month where I live for subs and now I'm at the methadone clinic for about 400 a month so it alot cheaper around here anyway. Good luck

There are many clinics that have both methadone and suboxone. They are very cheap. ^400 a month?! That's insane ! In NJ the clinics are either state funded (free) or have a sliding scale. The most expensive one is 40 dollars a week, full price. If you have no job/money they only charge you 10 dollars a week.. Damn, 400 a month is crazy..

Anyways.. I always find it amazing how us junkies can somehow find the means to get money together every single day to buy dope/pills, but can somehow 'never have money' when it comes to going to the doctor or something like that. If you can afford to buy OC's and whatnot, I find i thard to believe you can't save enough money to go see a doctor.

1) The 'Patient Assistance Program'. It is offered through Reckitt-Benckiser, the pharmaceutical company that makes Suboxone. If you make less than $20,000 a year and do not have health insurance, your doctor fills out a form found below and faxes it to the company, who will pay for your entire first months prescription of Suboxone for free.

http://www.rxassist.org/pap-info/company_detail.cfm?CmpId=173

http://www.suboxoneassistedtreatment.org/84.html

2) Depending on what state you live in, a visit to your local Department of Health and Human Services and meeting with a staff member can let you know if your state has a program branched off from Medicaid which will pay for either Buprenorphine or Methadone (I know for a fact that the state of Maryland has both; one insurance program for those making less than a certain amount of money a year without health insurance that will pay for Methadone maintanence, and another that will pay for Buprenorphine- both the doctor visits and the medicine itself).

3) The Suboxone Sublingual Film coupon posted above takes $40 off the cost of Suboxone Sublingual Film after what your health insurance pays (meaning $40 off your out of pocket expense/copay).

Regarding MMT, I was paying close to $400 a month at the 2 private clinics I used longterm. Though they were of high quality and privately run, and were worth it to me. They did accept the above mentioned Medicaid/state subsidized insurance in Maryland, but had no sliding scale. All clinics are different, but in my experience, state run MMT clinics are generally much cheaper, offer a sliding scale, or are outright free if you meet certain criteria.

Loperamide, works for me just as well (well, not just as well but close) as buprenorphine.

BrokedownPalace said:

There are many clinics that have both methadone and suboxone. They are very cheap. ^400 a month?! That's insane ! In NJ the clinics are either state funded (free) or have a sliding scale. The most expensive one is 40 dollars a week, full price. If you have no job/money they only charge you 10 dollars a week.. Damn, 400 a month is crazy..

Anyways.. I always find it amazing how us junkies can somehow find the means to get money together every single day to buy dope/pills, but can somehow 'never have money' when it comes to going to the doctor or something like that. If you can afford to buy OC's and whatnot, I find i thard to believe you can't save enough money to go see a doctor.

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Lol that's so true. I would even complain about the price of my suboxone (I wasn't covered for a long time) when my mom was buying it for me, but in truth, the money spent on my prescription would only last me four days or so if I was using it on heroin.

Gabapentin really helps with withdrawal in my opinion, it makes it almost unnoticeable, and I imagine from what I hear that loperamide would work too. My problem with gabapentin is that I can't stand how it makes me feel. It's like being drunk and suffering from cocaine induced paranoia at the same time.

Tommyboy said:

If you end up being able to afford another doctors appointment, then you should look into this coupon to print out.

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Right on. Good job TommyBoy. I was going to post that.

The last time I was on sub, I only took 1mg a day (half a 2mg strip), so after presenting the coupon to the pharmacist, I'd get the whole thing for free, but I could only use it after I lost my health insurance. Talk about convenient maintanance.

sounds like a good time to quit the opies mate

Anyways.. I always find it amazing how us junkies can somehow find the means to get money together every single day to buy dope/pills, but can somehow 'never have money' when it comes to going to the doctor or something like that. If you can afford to buy OC's and whatnot, I find i thard to believe you can't save enough money to go see a doctor.



Lol Brokedown Place you are so true. I always always came up with money for Heroin everyday. Today I was frealking out because I got to my sub doctor tomorrow and he is giving me my new prescripton for it and I was thinking damn I'm short on money. I forgot my helath insurance covers it so I'm straight lol

A couple years ago I would have said poppy pods..

Nowadays I'd point you more in the direction of gabapentin, lope, or Codeine CWEs (if you lived somewhere where codeine is sold OTC), although none of those are anywhere near as "fun"

What is the difference in poppy pods since a couple years ago? Price? I just went through a poppy pod phase. Even at current prices it was less money than heroin and while the high wasn't nearly as good that pod tea did make me completely well. Quitting the tea was tough until I got smart enough to try high dose loperamide (immodium). I took maybe 40 mg during the first couple of days, plus a clonidine taper the urgent care doc wrote for me (which usually does nothing for me). That was all I needed. I didn't feel good but I wasn't feeling like heavy withdrawals at all.

There is no patent on loperamide. Nobody will ever do the lab work to get it FDA approved for opiate withdrawal. But it seems to work very well for the first few days of withdrawal which are usually the worst. My advice is to be careful not to use too much for too long or you could have severe constipation problems.

Schrei said:

I cant afford Suboxone, or the appointment. Any other ideas?

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Get on Medicaid and see if it will pay for Suboxone treatment. If not, go to a Methadone Clinic. When I was on Medicaid I got free transportation to the clinic and back and I didn't have to pay for treatment. When I got off Medicaid, they put me on a sliding scale payment based on my income. I only pay $12 a week for my Methadone now that I have a job and only go once a week.

-Guido- said:

Get on Medicaid and see if it will pay for Suboxone treatment. If not, go to a Methadone Clinic. When I was on Medicaid I got free transportation to the clinic and back and I didn't have to pay for treatment. When I got off Medicaid, they put me on a sliding scale payment based on my income. I only pay $12 a week for my Methadone now that I have a job and only go once a week.

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Exactly. I find it odd, both online and off, that people who are interested in either Buprenorphine or Methadone treatment (though specifically Bupe) won't take the steps available, by the government, insurance companies, drug companies, etc to get their treatment paid for either 100% or at least for the bulk of it. Between the Patient Assistance Program, state health insurance plans which cover either Buprenorphine and/or Methadone, clinics with both drugs available that have a sliding scale or are state run and free to begin with, coupons and discount cards, and so on- it really is pretty easy to get access to free or severely reduced charges for seeing a Buprenorphine provider and for the pills/film strips themselves. It's as easy as filling out a couple forms; printing out a couple coupons and discount cards online; as easy as looking up the location of your nearest Department of Health and Human Services office; as easy as looking up all of the MMT clinics in the area and calling to see which ones have a sliding scale, offer Buprenorphine treatment, whether they're privately run or state run and if they are free, to find out your eligibility for various Patient Assistant Programs by just thinking about your own financial, work and debt situation, etc.

I recently offered to bring all of the paperwork (for the Medicaid branch that pays for Buprenorphine doctor visits and the prescription), all of the coupons and discount cards printed out in case they weren't eligible for the state program (though I'm certain they are), the Patient Assistance Program form for the Dr to fill out and send to Reckitt-Benckiser and a list of all the Buprenorphine doctors in a 50 mile radius of my friends home; and they declined even after asking lots of questions about how to get these things for free and get on Subs, even after months of talking about wanting to get on Buprenorphine desperately.

I can understand some reluctance and fear of the unknown, it is a big step to enter a treatment program- but if you have the desire to do so, why not take advantage of these openly available programs and opportunities rather than brush them off and continue to just talk about it, or complain about not being able to afford it, etc.? I don't know.