Still using drugs after getting on Methadone?

[CharlesTheHammer]

In the methadone clinic I joined in '00, I noticed that a LOT of people who didnt have problems with other drugs than opiates, started using those drugs after they got off opiates and on methadone.

I joined a methadone clinic for my H addiction in January '00. I noticed that within a few days of getting started, after they got me to a stabilizing dosage of methadone, I didnt need any opiates anymore.......

But then, I started using coke. I did this on and off(mostly on) for the next 2.75 years..... I had done coke before, but never on a regular basis. Now I was using it on usually a daily basis. I kept giving dirty urines at my meth clinic, and they made me go to multiple groups, and to see my counselor every week. They had what they called a "contract" where you had to give a certain amount of clean urines out of 6 over a period of 3 months. If you passed, you then didnt have to go to as many counseling sessions or groups.

The city where I lived was small, so you could go from a fairly good area of town to an open air drug market in 2 blocks!
There was an outdoor cocaine market just 1 1/2 block from my room in the boarding house I was living in, so I could score and be home in 5 minutes!

I FINALLY got sick of the way my life was going, and I immediately moved out of the city where I was living, so I'd be away from the source. I was able to finally quit illegal drugs for good, and now its been 8 years.......

Cocaine use was so common for clients of the methadone clinic after they got on methadone, that they even had special cocaine groups to deal with it! Cocaine and H were the only hard drugs available in the city(or other nearby cities for the most part), so that was what people used. Aside from pot, coke, and H, there arent any other hard drugs around here. There has NEVER been a methamphetamine problem anywhere near my area, and I've never even seen X around, so we were limited to what we could abuse...Fortunately, I guess.........

Part of the problem, is that methadone definitely solves your opiate problem, but it doesnt do anything to curb your desire to continue with drug abuse. It just gets you off of one drug, then you might go use another, cause that desire to get high is still there, like its always been! Plus, we are also addicted to the 'chase' of getting drugs too. We like the satisfaction of a successful hook-up!

Have you had or seen the same problem with using drugs after getting on methadone?

 

[villian]

If you want to get on methadone and get "clean" -- you can.

If you want to get on methadone and keep getting fucked up -- people do this as well.

The program is what you make of it. It isn't a magical path to sobriety or solution to addiction.

Being on a maintenance dose of opiates won't solve any of the root issues of why you choose to abuse drugs to begin with, the program is meant to give you a tool to address these root problems while keeping you legal and out of the harm that is the hood.

Many people get on methadone and never address these problems. After you have been on methadone for awhile, it's not getting you high anymore. Some people still crave some kind of high because they never addressed their problems, and they will find this high elsewhere.

 

[Missykins]

In my opinion, this is the problem when people rely solely upon substitute therapy for their addiction. Many addicts are polydrug users. As you know, their is no substitute therapy for cocaine which is one reason why it's difficult to quit. Plus there is a strong behavioural component to drug use, like the ritual that goes along with its use, even the high one experiences from getting it.

That's why I think that you have to have some sort of program that provides you with support. The obvious one in NA/AA, but it could be anything that gives a reason to remain drug-free.

 

[CharlesTheHammer]

Not that simple?

If you want to get on methadone and get "clean" -- you can.

If you want to get on methadone and keep getting fucked up -- people do this as well.

The program is what you make of it. It isn't a magical path to sobriety or solution to addiction.

Being on a maintenance dose of opiates won't solve any of the root issues of why you choose to abuse drugs to begin with, the program is meant to give you a tool to address these root problems while keeping you legal and out of the harm that is the hood.

Many people get on methadone and never address these problems. After you have been on methadone for awhile, it's not getting you high anymore. Some people still crave some kind of high because they never addressed their problems, and they will find this high elsewhere.

It's not as simple as you make it sound.....

You're right, BUT.......I dont know of many people whether they were on methadone or not, who were able to just simply quit a hardcore drug addiction the very first time they tried! In fact, I'd say that 95% + of all the people I've met who abused drugs or alcohol had at least one relapse before they got clean! Most of them had multiple relapses.......

 

[Lolie]

From a pure harm reduction point of view, methadone is great - but it's a bit like using diet shakes to lose weight. Until you change the lifestyle which supported your use, you're still thinking and behaving like a drug abuser.

In my area, people on the methadone programme tend to meet up of a morning to get their doses together and then hang out together for the rest of the day - just like they did when they were using. Their lifestyle hasn't really changed at all, just which drugs they're using. In many cases they're still stealing, ripping each other off and doing all the other things they did to support their habits - they don't have a foot in the world of functional adulthood at all. And that lack of connection with "normality" is a pretty strong bond between them.

I think that when any drug has you in it's grip it's really hard to imagine that there are other people for whom it's something they can take or leave or actively dislike. You'll see many "don't do drug X, it's the worst" comments on here and that drug really has been the worst for the people making them, yet others have had no problem with that drug but struggled with another.

There's almost no coke usage at all in my area (in fact coke is only just making a reappearance here after being pretty much absent since the 90s), but it's really common for people on the methadone programme to be amphetamine and pill users. I'm sure that what's easily available influences what people are using to get fucked up on.

In my experience people tend to think "if I can just stop using X then my life will be fine" when in reality there's a lot more involved in transforming your life from dysfunctional to "normal" than not using.

 

[brimz]

I've been on methadone for about 12 years highest dose 80mg lowest 20mg .
Throughout all this time i have used on top . Crack , Heroin big benzo script.
If it wasn;t 4 my mum i wouldn't b here .

 

[mymindisgoo]

don't you get drug tested in clinics? my step mother works at a MMT center and that's what she told me?

 

[CharlesTheHammer]

Yes to drug tests at clinics, NO to benzos on meth!

don't you get drug tested in clinics? my step mother works at a MMT center and that's what she told me?

Hell yeah you get drug tested in methadone clinics! At least every clinic I know of, or have heard about.......... Methadone is a serious drug, and by federal law they are supposed to make sure you are not using other dangerous drugs with methadone(Like benzos)

The 2nd to last poster said he uses benzos, and I know damn well that if you were caught using benzos at my meth clinic, they wouldnt dose you! That shit IS NOT supposed to be mixed!

And there is absolutely no point in continuing to use opiates while on methadone either, unless you just like to throw money away for nothing! Cause that is what opiates do to you while on methadone..........Nothing!!

 

[is300ss]

big yes on the successful hook up. great feeling huh. its gangsta. BUT if you think about it... buying is NOTHING. now selling is another story. the seller has something to worry about. the buyer... nothing. Now if you got a good connect and your selling to a good clientel? thats success. for a while at least... until people start getting poped and someone rats you out....

dude i dont know what its like to be hooked on H. so forgive me if i offend you. im sure you pry shot it up and not JUST snorted it...
GET OFF METHADONE AND GO THROUGH THE WITHDRAW!!!
that methadone shit is worse than H (im sure u know)... it just gets rid of the need for thd drug and leaves u sober. That my friend would certainly fuck with my head and make me turn to another drug.
I'll use my cousin as an example. three kids, shes on methadone, and then a couple months later we find out sheds homeless and using meth all day everyday.

I'll ask you the same question as i asked her. Why cant you just quit that shit and then get into psychedelics?
and im guessing the answer is gonna bve that i dont even know what its like to shoot that shit. I've snorted it and shit I'll do it again. but i will never shoot it... just like id never smoke crack. shits too good. i dont want to do that to myself. i know i might just say fuck it this is the shit, this is what ima live for...

i wish the best for you bro. kick it man kick it. you got to. u really gonna go to that clinic every week and be a slave to a drug that doesnt even give you a feeling?

oh and my cousin got taken off the methadone from the clinic. they stopped giving it to hetr and boom. she went back to the gutter.

im just trying to help. I have no idea what its like to be on that stuff and i have no idea of how good shootin that shit is... and i plan on keeping it that way.

may peace be with you