Opioids Methadone Mega Thread and FAQ

[splenda]

That's been my experience, too....that the scare stories about methadone/suboxone and benzos are WAY overblown. Maybe its different for someone who is opiate-intolerant, but I have noticed almost no potentiation.

Splenda...glad to hear you got your increase. Hang in there! Hopefully you won't have to endure a peak and trough and will attain stability soon. If your doctor and clinic are sane, and by that I mean that they are of the "it takes what it takes" mindset, you will do fine.

What I find extremely sad are the types who have pre-conceived notion of "target doses" and/or "maximum dose". Everyone is different, so those notions have no logical basis. The ultimate insanity are the states with mandated dose caps. This is exactly the kind of crap that could become the norm should government-run "health care" go into effect.

Yeah I'm hoping that too... they will increase me 10mg/week as needed if I want to. Should I stay on 80mg for longer than a week or do you recommend I go up 10mg more if 80mg doesn't hold me off for 24hours? Should I just wait for the methadone to build up levels in my bloodstream?

Yeah, I'm hoping I won't have to do a peak/trough either. If I needed split dosing for any reason, they would split my morning dose in half right (and not double my morning dose)? And yeah I'm pretty sure my clinic doesn't have caps... they have a warning about prolonged QT interval for anyone over 200mg of methadone and I overheard some guy talking in the waiting room saying that he was on 360mg of methadone (he said he was taken down from 480mg of methadone to 360mg, lol.)

The 80mg took a while to kick in today... usually it kicks in within 45min-1hr but today it took around 1.5hrs to do so. Probably because when I got my dose dispensed the different nurse today added more water to the sugar-free Methadose.

Prior to dosing I felt pretty crappy this morning... irritability and feeling uncomfortable... so I'm hoping 80mg will alleviate some of that.

 

[thelung]

splenda: I would recommend going up as much as they let you until you feel that you are comfortable. If you're still having physical w/d symptoms, then you need to increase your methadone dose. Just out of curiousity, where in the country are you? I'm in Seattle, and I also am dispensed the Methadose brand red syrup...

 

[splenda]

splenda: I would recommend going up as much as they let you until you feel that you are comfortable. If you're still having physical w/d symptoms, then you need to increase your methadone dose. Just out of curiousity, where in the country are you? I'm in Seattle, and I also am dispensed the Methadose brand red syrup...

Yeah, I tend to feel uncomfortable and irritable late in the evening/early morning. I wake up before I head to the clinic each morning (usually 6am) in mild w/d.

I get dosed with the clear sugar-free liquid of Methadose, not the red syrup. So they fill up the liquid with some water I guess to prevent ppl from preparing them for injection and to make them taste not so bad... but that's just my guess lol. Some nurses add a lot of water while some don't... I notice doses that have less water kick in faster. The liquid tastes kinda weird/nasty, but it's not that bad. It gives my mouth a mild numbing sensation also which is nice.

 

[Pegasus]

That's been my experience, too....that the scare stories about methadone/suboxone and benzos are WAY overblown. Maybe its different for someone who is opiate-intolerant, but I have noticed almost no potentiation.

It's not just people who are "opiate-intolerant"... I was on MMT and benzos were certainly way stronger during that point in my life. All the benzo eaters that went to the clinic certainly agreed, and had plenty of stories about ODing or friends dying from the combo. I added a caveat with bupe ("IME"), because I know some people disagree with comparing methadone + benzos to bupe + benzos.

Did you notice the guy I was replying to OD'd?

 

[KnowBudz]

Its all relative. IME, the really bad addition is alcohol. Certainly taking a large amount of benzos while on opiates isn't smart. To hear the crap spread by some clinic people on might get the impression that folks are dropping right and left from combining the two.

As to increasing your dose, there are limits. I remember getting two increases in a week, but that was rare. I had my first peak and trough when I was at 120mg and they couldn't believe the results (small wonder I was coming in with full-blown w/d). Still, even knowing I was nowhere near an adequate dose, I still had to endure the slow climb.

Splits can be handled numerous ways. I ended up on 150/AM and 120/PM. I only was on the 40mg methadose tabs. In the early days, they had to hand out carries with water added and re-used the bottles over and over. In '02, they started dispensing the tabs. Then the rules changed again and they had to have each dose in its own bottle. You had to return the bottles and they threw them out and gave new ones...but if you lost any, they charged you $1/apiece.

Government at work....requiring the bottles be returned so they could be thrown away, but charging for not returning trash. Right before I left, the big thing was ID cards. It was a small clinic and everyone was well-known, but they threw a fit if you forgot. I recall a new guy who drove >100mi each day to dose. He forgot his card and they refused to dose him unless he drove home and got his card! The guy said "fuck it" and quit....what utter bullshit!

 

[unosnow]

Can u IV liquid methadone?

Can u IV liquid methadone from a methadone clinic?

 

[Jabberwocky]

you could, but you shouldn't. its an oral formulation meant for oral consumption, not to be injected. pharnaceutical vials of methadone are the only methadone formulation fit for injection, pbviously. just have a look at the viscosity of the methadone - there is sucrose and syrups in there which are absolutely horrible for your veins. if you go missing a partial shot then theres a good chance you'll end up with an abscess for the very least.

methadone is shit to inject anyway - no rush or anything, just a quicker onset. save your veins the pain, they'll thank you further down the track. the only way methadone needs to be taken is orally

merging into mega thread

 

[unosnow]

Let me start by saying that i have extensive opiate and benzo experince with my own body, i know how much i can handle (how many times have u heard that befor! lol) but im serius.

Im perscribed methadone and atavan.

today is friday so i have a dose this morning of 80mg liquid, 2 take home bottles of 80mg.

i shot half a bottle, i dont think it did anything. i shot 2 full CC's and didnt feel anything.

I also took 7 .5 atavan, i dissolved two pills with a low acidic drink and some watter and did 2 that way. barely felt it but im sure if i had done all 7 that way it would of been a "rush"

im just upset that today ive taken 160mg of methadone and 3.5mg of atavan and i feel pretty much fine. i had a really bad fucking day my anxiety was through the roof and i really wanted to calm down. im calm right now, but im not feeling "nice" or "high"
\

edit: my methadone is straight liquid methadone with no additivies. my clinic doesnt add anything unless u ask. i ask for mine straight.

the vicosity of it is that of straight watter. if u mix it with watter it mixxes PERFECTLY, i let it my sunday bottle sit in about 80mg of watter to see if it seperated and it didnt, so im not sure what kind of methadone other people get but i think mine is shootable? just havnt found a needle large enough to fir 80mg

 

[TheDankaholic]

Let me start by saying that i have extensive opiate and benzo experince with my own body, i know how much i can handle (how many times have u heard that befor! lol) but im serius.

Im perscribed methadone and atavan.

today is friday so i have a dose this morning of 80mg liquid, 2 take home bottles of 80mg.

i shot half a bottle, i dont think it did anything. i shot 2 full CC's and didnt feel anything.

I also took 7 .5 atavan, i dissolved two pills with a low acidic drink and some watter and did 2 that way. barely felt it but im sure if i had done all 7 that way it would of been a "rush"

im just upset that today ive taken 160mg of methadone and 3.5mg of atavan and i feel pretty much fine. i had a really bad fucking day my anxiety was through the roof and i really wanted to calm down. im calm right now, but im not feeling "nice" or "high"
\

edit: my methadone is straight liquid methadone with no additivies. my clinic doesnt add anything unless u ask. i ask for mine straight.

the vicosity of it is that of straight watter. if u mix it with watter it mixxes PERFECTLY, i let it my sunday bottle sit in about 80mg of watter to see if it seperated and it didnt, so im not sure what kind of methadone other people get but i think mine is shootable? just havnt found a needle large enough to fir 80mg

Coming from an RN who knows, all you have is the sugar free methadose and it's still an oral formulation NOT FIT FOR IV USE! I promise you there are a lot of things in that formulation of methadone that are not ok at all to be IVing. All you have is the clear sugar free version of the pink cherry flavored methadose liquid oral solution. It is however better to IV than the stuff that contains sugar and is pink plus a little more syrup like. But it's still nowhere near safe or ok to IV. Look up the list of ingredients online, it isn't too hard to find. Just because something is not syrup like and liquid does not make it ok to IV it when it's strictly made as an oral formulation.

Once again, one time isn't going to kill you but please don't make a habit of it or assume that its in anyway safe to IV. It's better than the people IV'ing the cherry flavored methadose syrup with sugar in it, but it's still a strictly oral only preparation with way too many additives that reek havoc on your veins and body. Plus like you proved to yourself there in NO advantage in IV'ing methadone. You will not get any kind of rush, just a faster onset and feed your craving for a needle fix. I know how it is, I have those cravings too! but don't fix your methadone oral prep for IV. It is not safe at all.

 

[Princess_Poppy]

I recently started MMT also. I was started on 30mg and I never really had problems with any withdrawals or cravings... I went up 10mg every day up to 60mg the first week... I'm 2.5weeks in the program and I'm at 70mg now (going up to 80mg tmrw.) The problem I have is that my dose doesn't fully hold me till the morning (I get a bit uncomfortable in the early morning/when I wake up.)

Yeah... I'm hoping to get the takehomes too... I forgot how long it takes to get takehomes here but I'll check with my counselor later on. Thankfully I don't really do any other drugs so I don't have much to worry about in terms of pissing dirty.

Do you plan on increasing your dose later on? How is 40mg holding you?

yeah i rarely even smoke pot, so i think i am going to give it up so i can get my take homes- no questions asked .

so i think the 40mg was fine, but they accidentally gave me 60mgs last friday (whoops?!) and i went to work pretty fucked up- not good! it would have been great if i would've had the day off! so they dropped me to 30 for two days... i was supposed to go back to 40 yesterday, but the nurse said she couldn't change anything without the doctor! THEN TODAY the head nurse was like "oh well do you want your 40mg?" it is craziness! i decided to try and stay at 30 since i already had for 3 days, but it is not really working out!

methadone is really frustrating for me in general. i feel really sleepy during my peak- which is right when i am at work, then by the time i get home i am really irritable. i always felt pretty motivated on heroin, methadone makes me feel lazier. does anyone else get that? i would have trouble sleeping on dope too, but man do i sleep like a rock on 'done!

hey but on a good note, i have extra money again and i am not running around trying to score dope all day!

 

[splenda]

yeah i rarely even smoke pot, so i think i am going to give it up so i can get my take homes- no questions asked .

so i think the 40mg was fine, but they accidentally gave me 60mgs last friday (whoops?!) and i went to work pretty fucked up- not good! it would have been great if i would've had the day off! so they dropped me to 30 for two days... i was supposed to go back to 40 yesterday, but the nurse said she couldn't change anything without the doctor! THEN TODAY the head nurse was like "oh well do you want your 40mg?" it is craziness! i decided to try and stay at 30 since i already had for 3 days, but it is not really working out!

methadone is really frustrating for me in general. i feel really sleepy during my peak- which is right when i am at work, then by the time i get home i am really irritable. i always felt pretty motivated on heroin, methadone makes me feel lazier. does anyone else get that? i would have trouble sleeping on dope too, but man do i sleep like a rock on 'done!

hey but on a good note, i have extra money again and i am not running around trying to score dope all day!

Ahh wow... I'm surprised the clinic didn't have you go up past 40mg on your dose. I've been in the program for 3 full weeks now and I went up to 70mg within 2 weeks, and now I'm at 80mg going up to 90mg tmrw.

Hang in there... you might want to ask the clinic for a higher dose if it's not holding you off long enough. Keep going up till you find a dose that holds you without irritability or anything till the next morning... 40mg surely wouldn't hold me off past the afternoon. The 'peak' effect is probably still pretty strong for you because you just started out... the first week I started out I had a really strong effect from it. Now it's a good buzz instead of that 'intense' sedation feeling that was there the first week.

But yeah, sleeping since I started the program is soo easy. It's great :D.

 

[Princess_Poppy]

^^
well they just screwed everything up so much giving me 60 that day. my habit wasn't all that heavy, and although i could handle myself everyone at work noticed something was up. i have been afraid to get like that again- since i peak at work, it sucks! i guess i should try dosing at 6am when they open since i don't have trouble sleeping anymore!

i am sure i could keep upping my dose. i just don't want to start chasing that high too ya know? especially since it is harder to catch and harder to get rid of! but yeah, i think i am going to go back up to 40 tomorrow. i am super bitchy today, and i guess thing isn't coming as easily since it is 2:15 and i am NOT tired at all

 

[Mafila]

Methadone has never blocked any opiate for me. Every time I did oxy the day after 40 mg's of methadone when I was still feeling the methadone the oxy just felt way stronger and it felt like the methadone left in my system just boosted the oxy high. However, after taking 30 mg's of methadone for three days and then waiting two days to take a sub, the sub made me extremely sick for an hour an a half to the point where I was nearly going into convulsions and even though it hit me after two hours I still didn't feel totally right for the rest of the day.

Methadone is a really weird drug for me. I take it on and off cause I get it off the street and the longest I've taken it for was maybe five days to a week straight. I've been trying to quit opiates completely by taking 2.5 mg of methadone a day (40 mg's gives me a really nice high), I've been fine and not withdrawing when on the 2.5 mg's but as soon as 24 hours or so passes since I've dosed I still start going into withdrawals. Does 2.5 mg of methadone still cause withdrawals no matter what? Or should I be lowering my dose? Or should I simply switch to something else to taper with?

 

[KnowBudz]

I doubt 40mg is considered a "blocking dose". The level varies from person to person, but a certain amount it required to achieve the effect.

 

[Eight0Eight]

Recently I've met a lot of people on MMT that are injecting the stuff.

A lot of them seem to think that if they ask for the sugar free methadone, then it is OK inject.

Obviously, this HAS to be pure bullshit, surely?.

Does anybody here know what complication injecting methadone linctus brings?
Is it any worse than shooting pills?

I used to shoot methadone when I was in New Zealand, as they prescribe "Biodone" - which is much more concentrated (5 or 10mg/ml) and has the consistency of water (exactly what it looks like) it also has NO flavouring or anything like that. I wish other governments would use this stuff.

 

[thelung]

Stop injecting your methadone!!!!! your arm will need to be amputated

 

[Eight0Eight]

^ Errr........I don't inject methadone.

I don't even get a meth script.

The stuff I used to get was completely different to the flavoured 1mg/ml stuff that most clinics use. It was 5mg/ml, had no flavourings/colouring and had the consistency of water.

The New Zealand government switched to the normal stuff, but went back to this as people continued to inject it.

But what exactly is it that causes any damage thats in the "regular" methadone?

 

[Pegasus]

A lot of them seem to think that if they ask for the sugar free methadone, then it is OK inject.

Obviously, this HAS to be pure bullshit, surely?.

I used to shoot methadone when I was in New Zealand, as they prescribe "Biodone" - which is much more concentrated (5 or 10mg/ml) and has the consistency of water (exactly what it looks like) it also has NO flavouring or anything like that. I wish other governments would use this stuff.

All of this, regardless of if it's sugar-free or water-looking is going to be an oral solution form of the drug (syrup) that is not meant for injection. The potential for serious vascular damage from injecting these syrups is high.

Edit- I'm not familiar with New Zealand, but here in the USA, the "water-like" stuff is still a syrup with nasties that aren't meant for injection. If NZ is taking steps to prevent people from potentially injecting harmful syrups, that is great and we need more proactive behavior like this here.

 

[Pegasus]

I doubt 40mg is considered a "blocking dose". The level varies from person to person, but a certain amount it required to achieve the effect.

I agree 40mg probably isn't enough to be a blocking dose for most, especially if it is not built up in the system from daily use.

 

[Eight0Eight]

^If it was a suspension, rather than a solution - surely it would look cloudy, and wouldn't the meth fall to the bottom after a little while?

I'm 99% sure that the methadone (over here at least) is a solution, and the meth is properly dissolved.

*btw, 80mg is generally considered to be the average dose needed for the blocking effect to occur.