Opioids fentanyl patch

[daph3]

Can you cut a fentanyl patch in 1/2 or is this bad practice?

 

[ReversiblePulpitis]

Posting two threads back to back regarding the exact same topic, and in your case -- almost identical in the wording of the question, is unnecessary and highly frowned upon. It clutters up the forum and is distracting.

To answer your question:
If it's a gel-reservoir patch (Watson, Actavis) then no. This would allow for the gel to leak out... everywhere quite frankly and would render it useless transdermally other than possibly soaking into your skin if it was allowed to do so physically...
Unless your purpose was to abuse the gel. Either way, you're looking to OD.

A non-gel patch, with the drug stored in the adhesive matrix that just looks like a piece of tape can be cut in half. Release of the drug is based off of surface area, but even if cut perfectly in half, there's no way to be certain that it would release exactly half... but probably pretty close.

Why would you want to do this?

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Had to delete your other identical thread... please don't do that again.

 

[SaosinEngaged]

Just so you know, using a fentanyl patch in any way other than it was intended ( and even then ) presents a massive risk of OD. Fentanyl is stupendously powerful and has quite a thin margin for error; it's dropped many a good (and usually safe) addict.

I'd fuck with something else.

 

[brutus]

^ Couldn't agree more. No drug is worth your life and fentanyl may very well be that drug to take your life.

You can't cut the matrix fentanyl patches in half because the patches may have an unequal amount of fentanyl in one part of the patch and you could accidentally OD.

I strongly advise you not to do this OP.

 

[ReversiblePulpitis]

For the sake of HR, I retract the part of my earlier post about cutting one in half "being pretty close". Youre correct.

 

[Toz]

I cut the matrix patches in pieces frequently now that I don't that big of a tolerance, it works great for me at least. I've never noticed that the fentanyl seemed unevenly distributed between the patch.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

You can't cut the matrix fentanyl patches in half because the patches may have an unequal amount of fentanyl in one part of the patch and you could accidentally OD.

Actually I don't believe that is correct. If it is a matrix patch and NOT a gel patch the fentanyl should be evenly distributed over the surface area of the patch. Some doctors actually even cut the patches in half. They can be cut diagonally in order to be on the extra safe side that each piece will have the same amount of fentanyl in it.

Never cut a gel patch in half though.

EDIT: Here's a page from a hospital supporting what I said: York Hospitals Guidelines on the use of Transdermal Fentanyl Patch

Also from the Mylan patch prescribing info:

The amount of fentanyl released from each system per hour is proportional to the surface area (25 mcg/hr per 6.25 cm2). The composition per unit area of all system sizes is identical.

 

[macd610]

I don't know the purpose behind your question. It'd be helpful in the future to include as much pertinent detail as possible. This way we will be able to give you more specific answers.
It's Due to the lack of needed info in your post (ie, Is the patch a gel resivoir or matrix? Have you used the drug before, etc...) you probably won't get anything other than the intelligent responses you've gotten so far....
Do not tamper with the patch. Use it as directed TRANSDERMALLY. If this patch is something you've somehow stumbled upon, I'd go so far as to advise you not to use it at all, especially if your tolerance is fairly low.
I'm prescribed fentanyl transdermal system and even with (what I thought at the time) was a decent tolerance, I nearly OD'd with my first patch. My MD had to lower my starting dose.
These responses may seem overly firm to you, I don't know. If so, please realize that we all have good intentions; reducing harm.
If you would like to let us know what your intentions are behind this, please post.
Take care.
Cat

 

[srkone]

I think the posts to the effect of "stay away from fent" are well-intentioned, but fairly useless. An opiate user will try something new before being sick, and we all know this. If this is all you have, as with any opiate/delivery method, start small and see what happens. I got a hold of some matrix patches and they worked well. In my experience, you can gauge how much total fentanyl you are ingesting by the patch concentration. For example- 75 mcg/hr on a 72hr patch will yield 5400 mcg of the drug, or 5.4 mg. (a quick GIS shows that the patch wrapper tells how much fentanyl each patch contains, which is more than the previous calculation. The previously mentioned patch has 7.65 mg) 0.1 mg of fent is analogous to 10 mg of morphine, so ya, that's a lot. It has worked for me to take the total drug amount into consideration, cut the patch accordingly, and use sublingual. My2Pennies.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

I think the posts to the effect of "stay away from fent" are well-intentioned, but fairly useless.

I sort of agree - it is important to warn people that if they don't have a high tolerance to opioids that fentanyl is dangerous, but not answering the OP's question doesn't help them. In fact, cutting the matrix patches could be a useful form of harm reduction in that you can make a patch less strong that way. If you take a 100mcg/hr patch and cut it in half you will have a 50mcg/hr patch and so on. The amount of fentanyl released per hour is directly proportional to the surface area of the patch.

For example- 75 mcg/hr on a 72hr patch will yield 5400 mcg of the drug, or 5.4 mg. (a quick GIS shows that the patch wrapper tells how much fentanyl each patch contains, which is more than the previous calculation. The previously mentioned patch has 7.65 mg) 0.1 mg of fent is analogous to 10 mg of morphine, so ya, that's a lot.

Yeah it's very important to note that you cannot just multiply the mcg/hr by 72 to find out the total amount of fentanyl in a patch. There is a large amount of extra fentanyl in each patch. The reason for this is that they have to do that in order for the first 72 hrs to release a consistant amount of fentanyl per hr. One can do a search to find out the total amount of fentanyl in a specific brand of patch (or people can ask here on Bluelight if they can't find it) because it does vary depending on the manufacturer.

It has worked for me to take the total drug amount into consideration, cut the patch accordingly, and use sublingual. My2Pennies.

I would not recommend that people use these sublingually (especially when no one had even asked about it). The safest and most effective way to use them is applied to the skin as they were intended.