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Opioids help me kick a 160 mg methadone habit with the drugs I have

And addar thanks for your advice.... And just to clear things up( cuz there must have been a misunderstanding ) I can get the 8 mg subs all day long so not to worry there and i took your advice and tried 8mgs to no aval... then took 4 more and felt ok not great but stoped 90% of w/d symtoms... but my concern is i dont want to be stuck on the subs for vary long eather... you said something a few post back about a quik tapper plan id love to hear it....
 
It's weird because it even still does the classic Methadone thing where you don't hit a peak from it for hours into it. So there is no rush, the onset really isn't quicker, & its HORRIBLE for your health to IV that liquid. The viscosity is bad even diluted as you said you made it and how you did it. I'm very familiar with mixing fluid especially pain meds with saline bags and hooking them up to patients. The problem with that Methadone is it's viscous and has sugar in it even... they do this on purpose to keep you from IV'ing it. Once or twice like I did was bad enough I lost one of my favorite veins over it just doing it once that time when I was very sick. Your body does not naturally break down that thick syrup in your veins or a lot of the other ingredients besides the methadone in it on it's own. It will collect around your heart valves, your eyes capillaries, etc. You can easily lose a limb, have a pulmonary embolism, blood clot, etc. Anyone else ever considering this please don't. It's very bad for you.

The methadone I got from the VA hospital was crystal clear liquid [like water] though bitter to the taste. I simply dilluted it with water and drank it. I suspect they bought it like that because it was cheaper?? So Methadone is dispensed in different liquid forms. I never tried to IV it but I think others did...
 
Hi traybuck, I'm not the biggest font of knowledge when it comes to opiate withdrawal aside from my own personal experiences with it, which haven't been many, no longer than 2 days to be back to normal.....However, I'm quite an expert in the area of withdrawal, since I've had withdrawal from several different types of substances before, and went to a vocational college to become a drug and alcohol abuse counselor, but I was limited in how I could help people, I'd be much better as a licensed clinical psychologist.

Here is my advice:

#1 - If the buprenorphine (subutex, I think, or suboxone, or sublimaze? lol) is working, quickly find a suboxone doctor to continue weaning down if possible, or at least to stay on your current suboxone dose to keep yourself stable, cause it would take a lot to make you comfortable.

#2 - If you cannot find a suboxone doctor, try to make the ones you have last as long as possible. Other scheduled substances will also help such as benzodiazepines....Clonazepam is your best bet because it is pretty potent and has quite a long half-life...and would probably potentiate the suboxone. I don't recommend xanax or ativan cause they don't last long at all, if you cannot find any klonopin (clonazepam) then valium (diazepam) or librium (chlordiazepoxide) may help.

#3 - Buprenorphine ... all the information I was going to attempt to relate is made very clear here with information and pictures: http://www.naabt.org/education/buprenorphine_treatment.cfm
So after you run out of it, it will take 24-72 hours before other opioids will work apparently, but you may want to have a friend help you detox with other types of opioids, and I would not recommend IVing, or even snorting, since those methods are more addicting than swallowing a pill.

#4 - OTC medicines: There is nothing wrong with asking the pharmacist what OTC medicines you could take to help alleviate some of the withdrawal from your opioid medicine. (Just don't ask at the same pharmacy where you have your prescriptions filled lol) Aside from antihistamines however, I'm not sure what else might help that's OTC, aside from Tagamet, is that an antihistamine also? I don't know, I had a really bad itchy rash and was giving Rx Benedryl, Atarax, Rx Tagamet, and Prednisone.

#5 - If you have any questions please feel free to PM me, I don't work or go to school so I have as much time on my hands as a retired elderly person, lol.
 
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So you're on 12mg I understand. Alright, stay on it for now. Your body will eventually get used to that dose and you should feel alright. It's going to take a few days so levels in your blood become stable. When you feel 12mg is alright and it holds you, lower the dose to 10mg. You shouldn't feel any difference in effects because buprenorphine cumulates in body, so again it may take 2-3 days before you know how you feel on 10mg. Then you would lower your dose to 8mg the same way, 20% reduction is considered still good while tapering down.

Anyway, some people need to taper down slower, 20% reduction is too high for them etc. So it's really hard to write a universal schedule for tapering down. When I used buprenorphine and was tapering down, I lowered the dose by 2mg from 16mg. 7-day intervals seemed alright. I had to be at university everyday so it was kind of hard but it was the best when it was done like that:

Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri: 16mg
Sat, Sun, the following week: 14mg
Sat, Sun, the following week: 12mg

The point was to change the dose on a day when I had less stress and I still had one more day to know how it feels so I don't go out and I don't freak out. But you may do it faster if you later think and feel you can bear it. I always needed more time to get to 0 whatever I used. So I'm an example of opposite.
 
well thanks but your life story did me no good.. for one.when you shoot that amount of methadone into your body in less then one minute there IS A RUSH.NOT THAT I CONDONE IT IN ANY WAY....And some ppl do get sick from shooting it like a friend of mine was using it to kick an oc habit and she would get sick from it but not everyone has this problum..drugs react different to everybody.. but what was the point of your rant??? really that its bad??? well no shit.. i know this allready...i dont mean to sound or come off like a dick but your life story was all about your view on methadone use when were here to talk about getting off of it and i found no usefull info in you long rant...

Wow way to be friendly... sorry I "offended you" with my life story. that's cool bro, i've been around here a long time but it's people like you that drove away a lot of the original people that loved this website. I was just giving you my background so you don't think I'm so dumb kid quoting what he reads online. I could easily make you a detox chart if that's what you need and with 25 subs if they are 8mg's... It could be pulled off with WAY less. 2mg of subs will hold you better than you think.

My rant was from being stoned and doing a 32mg Dilaudid shot. I get lost in my writing. Sorry that it offended you or pissed you off. Sorry if it didn't even help you. Don't read it maybe? I don't know. It's the way I think sorry. I got major experience on both sides of the fence. Being a junkie, being a methadone MMT patient, working in n MMT clinic, being a RN working in Emergency Medicine, & now studying back in school to be a Dr. My mind flows & when it comes to physiology and pharmacology I go off & say more than I even realize at times. Sorry I get thrown off buy anyone IV'ing there Methadone and thinking that it isn't extremely damaging to use that liquid IV no matter how much you dilute it. Even the clear liquid thats less viscous from the VA has ingredients purposely put in there so it isn't fit for IV. I hate that in Europe they actually allowed people to use IV Methadone Ampules from some clinics for certain patients but nothing like that in the USA for MMT.

I understand your post was about detoxing off what you were on but my response was to someone talking about how IV'ing that much methadone would give you a monster tolerance & the emphasis from a few people was that 160mg IV methadone was going to give you a worse tolerance and w/d than 160 mg oral methadone was going to. Which simply is not true... there is a slight difference but the oral BA is extremely high that it really negates any difference in your tolerance or withdrawal in comparison to someone who has say 100mg oral morphine habit compared to 100mg IV morphine habit. Because with Morphine orally you lose around 60%-80% where IV you don't lose any, it's 100% (that's if it's hospital for IV use Morphine, if your prepping pills of course your going to lose some of the Morphine in the prep process).

Sorry If I didn't make it clear that my original intentions were to point that misconception out as I just don't like misinformation spread about like wildfire as more people than you probably realize rely on this site & believe anything posted here most be the truth or mean it's ok. This site was started and still is about Harm Reduction or at least I thought it still was. I've taken a long absence from here to be a site tech for Opiophile.org but I love bluelight, always will and always have loved it.

You won't be the first person to hate me for saying things people just don't want to hear on this website. But for everyone one person like you I get 10 who PM me & thank me for the help. Thank me for good information on what they can do to harm themselves "less" if they are going to do it anyways. I used to hook people up with Micron Filters at cost through this site for a long time & now I do it locally for IV users. I'm into harm reduction so when I'm stoned & have opiates plus some caffeine in me & I read something like I did I tend to write, & write a lot. I don't say things to put people down or scare them but I will absolutely point out the dangers so maybe some body reading up on IV'ing Methadone who is on the fence about it, can at least make an educated decision upon reading some factual information. You would honestly be better off IV'ing the methadone pills and micron filtering with a .45um & then a .20um filter (or even just one .20 um would be fine but that's a lot of liquid id run it through both) than using the clinics liquid done as crazy as that sounds.

I'm the Dankaholic, the "debby downer" of threads in the OD forum at times but until you've seen a young person come into the ER and lose a limb over a bad IV interaction shooting something they shouldn't then don't act like I'm overreacting or putting my life story out there. I just want to let you know I'm not "blindly preaching" as many do. Just 2 weeks ago we amputated the right arm of a 20 year old male for IV use of that stupid "Salt" crap that's like legal Cocaine. He'd been using it for a while and all the sudden one bad poke one day and necrosis set in FAST, it was oozing black puss from the IV site & his arm swelled to 4x it's size. You Couldn't even bend it, spent 10 days trying to save the arm but it was a no go & had to be amputated just above his right ACL below the shoulder.

Sorry I ranted about the dangers and pointlessness of IV use of Methadone but I've seen a lot and If I could save one persons arm or leg writing that I can take 1000 people hating me for writing it. Oh well =D A lot of people know me around here & like I said you either love me or hate me. I love everyone, even those who hate me ;-)

If you want professional advice and an in depth taper plan you can PM me I'll give you my personal advice. You said you have 25 8mg Suboxone pills? How much do you have on hand for Benzo's? This exact reason is why for one month I quit my Klonopin and just saved a whole bottle of 60 1mg Klonopin pills. Methadone withdrawal is hard and lasts forever because unlike normal opiates it stores itself in fat cells. Think of the way THC stays in your system for a month because it stores in fat cells. Well Methadone metabolites do the same thing so unlike heroin, morphine, dilaudid, etc. Methadone w/d's can last 3+ weeks. Too bad you can't find the Methadone pills on the street easy where you live. They are everywhere where I live and only about $3-$4 in small amounts and cheaper for large amounts. They are 10mg each so they make tapering easy. But if you have the same liquid most get and an oral syringe it should be 10mg to 1ml of liquid.

--------Taper Plan for 160mg's IV Methadone every 2 days----------

Supplies Available: 25 8mg Suboxone pills & Xanax ( & you said some methadone I believe is still available tp you right? )

Day 1: You gotta first start working at getting all of that methadone out of your system as much as possible so you can jump to subs without a precipitated withdrawal happening. Most clinics make you get stable at 30mg or less before you can change for safety reasons. A precipitated w/d at that high of a dose would be so scary I'd have to take myself to the ER for that one. On day one depending on how much you have left of the methadone i'd IV half my usual dose. In your case I'd IV 80mg. Just remember with the half life of Methadone if you did 160mg yesterday than the next day you should still have 80mg in your system that your stacking your next dose on top of. That's why MMT patients have a much higher tolerances than someone who takes 60 mg's every 3 days because they have the stacking effect of doses.

Day 2: Today I'd go about your normal day because you said before you only used ever 2-3 days. If your uncomfortable at all I'd resist taking anymore methadone and opt for a small amount of xanax. If you smoke weed I'd even opt for getting a good bag for this whole process because I find weed with a benzo also gets rid of the craving to get "high" because you are at least high on something that's a downer. It at least controls the craving aspect.

Day 3: Your doing good now today fight the urge to do an IV amount that would get you high as much as your going to want to. Only IV 40mg today This is one of the hardest parts, we all know it. If you have a loved one (gf, wife, etc) that understands your situation and is willing to help I would HIGHLY suggest you take advantage of it! Let them hold onto the Methadone you have left & let them give you the set dose you agreed on for your taper plan. My Fiance is also a RN so she understands medicine and Id always fuck up and do more than my taper plan called for so I let her start giving me my doses when needed. If you don't have that just have the will power knowing it'll save you a lot of pain not to waste it.

Day 4: No methadone again today and use the Xanax if your uncomfortable during the day. What I'd really save it for though is the night kicks and struggle later when you actually jump off the done and are waiting for the right time to start on the sub induction. If you can get some clonidine it'll help you too.

Day 5: I actually want you to try ONE more day exactly the same as the day before. Lets try to really let the methadone drain out of your system & get those receptors ready for some subs. Use the Xanax to sleep this night as you'll prob be pretty uncomfortable.

Day 6: You've made it this far & now you really deserve a pat on the back. Give yourself a 30mg shot today of Methadone. Below 30mg's is where you really start to actually feel the Methadone w/d. From 100mg down to 40mg felt like nothing really major. But that 30mg to 0mg is a bitch. Lucky you've been prepping and gave yourself 2 days before this 30mg shot. You should even feel it a decent bit because you have been tapering. If you must (to reward yourself today) take a little xanax with your shot if you have nothing else to do. Yes I know benzo's and Methadone are dangerous but that actually generally applies to opiate naive people and methadone doses over 60mg. I know most state laws cap your dose at 60mg's if you have a legit benzo RX your going to stay on during MMT. Just don't take a crazy dose. I just know by day 6 you need a little reward for your troubles.

Day 7: Finally been at it for a week. This is another one of those no Methadone days. Use Xanax for the uncomfortable uneasy feelings at this point. Your going to start to feel it since your finally coming down below 30 mg's. you should only have between 15-20mg active in your blood stream at this point due to half life. Weed will help if you smoke it as will any benzos you can find and buy on the street and they should be cheap. I know 2mg Klonopins are like 2 bux and worth there weight in gold for this process, as is clonidine but that's a blood pressure med you won't find on the street but could easily get a Dr to RX for you. It's not controlled nor abusable in anyway.

Day 8: Same as yesterday, be strong as the muscle pains and anxiety are probably going to be intense today. Your going to get the watery eyes, runny nose, and possible GI problems could start. Today you can go buy some "Loperamide" generic Immodium AD for the GI issues. Nice thing is Loperamide is actually an opiate like drug that doesn't cross your blood brain barrier so it can't get you high but if you take a larger than normal dose it dose hit an opiate receptor in your gut which is what causes the medicine to work in the first place, you know how opiates cause constipation right? Well the stumbled across Loperamide ( Immodium AD ) when trying to make a pain killer actually. It was perfect for an anti diarrhea medication as it has all the actions of an opiate for your stomach and it's receptors to slow down your bowels but not get passed your BBB and cause any kind of narcotic high. Good part for you is it stops the problems that w/d's start for you in the GI area of things and it makes your body think it got opiates to a certain extent when you take enough. It won't cure your methadone w/d's by any means but the GI help alone is a god send and any extra soothing it could help with the w/d portion is an added bonus at this point.

Day 8: If you've made it this far and you still have a little Methadone left I'm really proud of you and I want you to go ahead and IV 20mg of it. Take it easy & start mentally prepping yourself for the switch soon knowing your coming to the end of the Done' train and hopping on the suboxone train.

Day 9: Hope you saved your Benzos because the next 3 are going to be rough. Day 9, 10, & 11 I want you to try and take nothing but benzo's try to make sure you have enough for sleep as that's probably the most miserable part. Plus the benzo's will relax your muscles. If you can get some Soma's (Carisoprodol) they will be excellent for sleep with a benzo. It's the only muscle relaxer I find even close to strong enough to work on w/d. Every other one on the market ( that's not a benzo ) I find are just useless and too weak to use for w/d Backlofen felt like I was taking sugar pills when i tried that before. Also don't forget if you use benzo's too long your going to want to small taper those at the end as well. Benzo w/d is horrible and actually can cause seizures that will kill you. Another reason I keep an emergency stash. You can get through this, after this portion it's smooth sailing! You got this!

Day 10: See above

Day 11: Ok today is the day, im hoping... but only you will know. You should be feeling horrible by now, methadone has cleared your receptors, & it's out of your system as an active drug. Your only left with the deposits in your fat cells similar to the way THC is stored. So w/d is long from my Methadone but hopefully we will fix that today and be jumping to subs! You should have full blown watery eyes, runny nose, diarrhea, possibly vomiting a lot by now, & overall just going through the start of a horrible withdrawal.

Another good sign to look for that lets you know it's time to start the subs is when you hit the point of Opiate w/d where your pupils go from your usual pin dots to dilated as bad as they would be if you had eaten 10 hits of acid. Your blood pressure goes way up when your in w/d, really bad to the paint your eyes dilate like you were on a major upper. That is why clonidine helps so much with w/d it drops your blood pressure to a normal level helping you with sleep and being comfortable. Clonidine + Benzos (kpin or ativan is what i usually have) + Weed is comfortable as I think I've ever been when in withdrawal.

Use the xanax & weed if you smoke to help you at least feel a little better. If you are indeed at this stage by now & are using the 8mg Suboxones pills (orange nastiness I say, blah haha) Id break it into four equal pieces of 2mg a piece. Place 2mg under your tounge & let it sit there. If after an hour your not having a bad reaction like vomiting is getting way worse etc. than put another 2mg under your tounge or honestly I found them more effective to snort in small bumps of 2mg's to induce myself but some people can't stand the drip. Doesn't bug me. I have a harder time actually putting them under my tongue. Keep repeating this process every hour or 2 until you feel better. Not exceeding 16mg's for that first day.

Day 12: If everything went as planned you should be on subs now. You can still use xanax in small amounts if you have any left to taper yourself or make yourself comfortable. Stay small on your doses of Suboxone. I know a lot of people who were RX'd 24mg's a day who had half the habit I did and I could always get by on 2-4mg a day easily. If I snorted it 2mg a day would keep me well off a gram a day H habit when I was younger before I grew this monster tolerance, but a G a day of Heroin IV is no small habit and 2mg held me. So don't just take large doses of subs because you have them. Today I'd actually only take 8mg if you took 16mg yesterday... or 4mg if you only took 8mg yesterday.

Day: 13 Drop your Sub use to 4mg a day. If it works better for you do it as 2x 2mg doses during the day. I swear it's all in some peoples heads that 4mg of sub won't hold you but it will if you detoxed down off the methadone the way I laid it out and induced the subs right. If you have to since you have enough pills you can stay at 8mg for a few days before dropping... but id drop it sooner than later so you can stretch out the final jump at the lowest possible. Where your final jump can be from as little as 0.5mg of Suboxone instead of trying to jump to nothing from 4mg.

Day 14: It's been two weeks you should have this down now. Continue to decrease the subs for the next 2 weeks. If you need to stretch them out you can easily snort small amounts or as a lot of people do here you can IV very accurate little amounts of Suboxone as well & it will make your pills go way farther. From what I know, you can ask Captain Heroin, but 1mg IV'd of Suboxone is quite a bit and similar to doing a lot more any other route. If your not afraid to IV methadone liquid subs shouldn't scare you anymore. I'd strongly advise purchasing micron filters though to make it safe.

Day 15: From here you can hop on over to the Suboxone megathread or look up threads on Suboxone detox plans, diaries of sub detoxes, etc. & that will get you through the rest of it all.

Does that help you??? It's a product of Methadone, Redbull, Mango Kush, and 16mg of Dilaudid IV'd. I tend to write a lot but that should answer your original question since you got all mad about my "life story".... smile .... lifes too short.

-------------End Taper Plan, Let it go for 30 days total------------




To Adar:

yes this state is screwed for detoxing you because they will only Detox you like 3mg every 16 days or some crap and they do it blindly. Call it heaven on earth when I say they will take 6 months to go from 60mg to 0mg thats IF you can pay for it! If your being "Fee"toxed as we call it. They will do you dirty status in like 6 days I think & say peace out. The reason they also run the clinic this way is like I said in my original "rant" as it's being called is that this backwards ass behind the times state has only had MMT in the state for under 2 years when states like California where I lived my whole life have had MMT for over 30 years! So the clinic here doesn't go by any rules that most states have already established, they are basically collecting the data that the state is going to use later to make rules for MMT in the state which is scary for people I know on these crazy doses because these rules and a dose cap could change in a heart beat for them. Being a private for profit clinic though, I will say it's nice.

They don't even cater much to IV users and H users which I find a bummer because that's what I was the most. It's a bunch of Pain Killer popping pharmacists, Dr's, A high School principle, old people, young people, nurses (like myself), etc. It's like a freakin' country club of a clinic compared to the one in Cali' I went too where you didn't fit in at the clinic unless you were missing your legs ( or at least one ) & had "LA" or "IE" tattooed on your face with some other scribbles of jail house tats. Dealers sit out front of the clinic and sell H balloons to all the methadone patients... as they sell there take home doses to the suburban white kids to pay for there H since the clinics there are "Free" for the under-privileged people who qualify. So in hand the government pays for there H actually. It's like a day spa at the clinic here so of course there detox times are forever & a day. They want you to pay pay pay... they don't take insurance even if you have it. $280 a month for Methadone and mandatory 1 hour of counseling a month.

Methadone clinics here are not the same. Or should I say the methadone "clinic" here. This state only has one, there is no plural. They actually show up as 2 but it's the same clinic just opposite sides of town. One caters to one side the other caters to the other. They got people on Methadone for there Vicodin addictions. It makes me sick. They have a baby monkey on there back and the clinic attaches a gorilla instead. But when they are a FOR PROFIT clinic it is in there best interest for you to be addicted to methadone and on a big as dose as possible.
 
Dankaholic- Sorry for acting like a prick it was not right and hope youll except my appolligy.. as im sure you know not in the greatest mood.. thanks for the GREAT advice on your last post.. and after reading your reason for your life story now i understand why you wrote it and therefore i am sorry.. soo basiclly ive been compleatly off the done for 7 days now and ive use only 7 8mg subs so far the whole time.. Im in a lil body pain but like i said i dont want to be stuck on these shitty things eather (cuz thay give me really bad headach's from the subs witch is why im tryin to score subatex right now) and im not afraid of a lil pain... And i think the build up facter of methadone and the fact that i was only taking it every few days was in fact working in my advantige.. cuz for 7 days i dont feel as bad as i thought i was gonna...And as far as my view on methadone and the clinics is the same. thats why i never wanted to get in one cuz as much as i love the done i dont want to be fucked and stuck there eather cuz at first it was great but now i beleave that done really is just as bad as h and i dont want to be stuck on that shit for life.... anyways im getting tired from the xanex and valium so im gonna get out of here and im sorry that my writing is shitty i dont feel like fixing it right now...but im still kinda stuck on what to do with the subs cuz i feel like its just replacing one drug with another so i think im gonna take just enough to get by and then stop those to..
 
Don't worry about replacing one drug with another, if you're referring to bupe. The fact of the matter is buprenorphine is a partial agonist and a much better tool for getting clean than methadone could ever be.

I managed to kick a 1,000mg oxy/day iv habit using subs. I've been on 'em for 2 years now, and it's been getting easier and easier to stay clean. There are a few keys to a successful recovery. The first is finding the right dose that covers your symptoms. With a high tolerance, you may find yourself in unusually high territory, but it's okay. I'm there, I was on 32mg (40mg for a brief stint, pushing the ceiling dose).

You may also want to keep in mind, that you should taper up if you're increasing your dose. The reason is your body produces a locally synthesized mu antagonist called beta-arrestin when the receptors are flooded. That will increase your tolerance to bupe, something you don't want to happen because of the ceiling.

Unfortunately for me, I used subs as a crutch and 32mg still leaves me symptomatic. A year from now I'm going to start my taper, which will take another 2 years for a total of 5. The reason for such a long taper is not to induce symptoms and preserve the healing that bupe's partial agonism supports.

Toss the benzos once you're steady on the bupe. That's one drug you don't want to substitute your addiction with. Get a script for subs and get on long term. If nalaxone causes headaches, get on the generic subutex. It's a matter of finding a good doctor.

Make a plan. This plan needs to account for environmental cues for craving, and how you will deal with include people, places, and things that used be associated with use. Even silly things like what you would say if you ran into a dealer or what you would do if you found drugs. Set small goals in your plans, with rewards along the way. As you achieve those small goals, you will gain strength to persevere.

What really helped me succeed was the following: I realized that opiates brought me pleasure. By quitting I was then depriving myself of this pleasure. Any euphoria I felt from bupe at first, disappeared quickly. The dopamine rushes I once knew are a thing of the past. Real life is not filled with these glorious dopamine floods. They are however filled with small, pleasant experiences. It was absolutely vital to implement these experiences to avoid depression. Those experiences were: sex, exercise, good food, and even alcohol. I can't drink more than 2 shots of liquor, however; because of the bupe, it makes me barf. I'm sure I could drink again if I kept at it, but you get the idea.

Find something you enjoy, or used to enjoy when you were sober. Implement it into your recovery plan, with goals and a long term tapering plan, and I assure you, you will succeed.
 
I don't understand why you complain so much about paying at the program. Don't you have some allowance for those who can't cover the whole sum? Also, aren't those sums you mention much lower than money you would have to pay for e.g. heroin (you pay either way)? Even on the black market here methadone is cheaper than regular heroin and it was before heroin price jumped over 250% up. It's now 400zl / 1g = 135$, it used to be 140-160zl / 1g, = 47-54$. Now compare it with 'done prices: 50-80zl / 100mg = 17-27$. And before you say "it's so cheap there", keep in mind our salaries are a lot lower than in the U.S. I'm not into heroin since morphine came back on market so sure, I could buy it from a guy who sells me ampules at "wholesale" prices (30zl / 10x20mg/ml, = 10$), when I took heroin, the quality was generally much better than now but I also had to buy big amounts as there was no heroin in my city, driving 2 hrs every other day would be stupid so I got good quality heroin, 80mg morphine was like 0.25g. I know it's no price topic but I had to tell you the prices so it all makes sense.

When you have to pay for methadone or Suboxone, you should have less of it on the black market. I know both drugs can be bought there but maybe my logic isn't totally wrong... What can you buy easier? Methadone or heroin? Imagine in each city with a program here the place around the point is full of junkies. You can easily see a little crowd in front of the entrance, you walk up and ask right off if they've got some syrup for sale. No need for contacts. With heroin it's more complicated, if you want to buy some H and you're just starting, you either need someone to buy it for you a couple of times and then introduce you to the dealer or go to a meeting with a person who must "attest" for you that you're clean. Kind of a lot of work compared to getting regular amph.

Now with all this machine working (illegal heroin, clinics, detoxes, programs) doctors who let all those junkies on the program are partly guilty for such a big flow of methadone on the streets. Beside the capital city if some city has a program, it's one program. Anyway it goes that way everywhere - there's a doctor at the clinic who may help you get on the program or may tell you to go stuff yourself because you don't have enough papers from detoxes and therapies (in short). The same doctor is the chief at the program in city, the same doctor is the chief of the ward in hospital where people are either being prepared to enter the program or they simply go through detox (it's one ward in here, "detox ward" in hospital doesn't mean there are only junkies going through detox, everything is done there). Now if one person is in charge of everything, you're blown in city X if you have a bone to pick with The Doctor (my case, I can't get on MMT despite a 2-year "knocking on heaven's door").

If people here were to pay some money for methadone or Suboxone from the program, they would be much less junkies selling methadone syrup just like that (people pay, country buys more methadone from Molteni, people pay, more are allowed to enter the program). Now what do those people do when they sell their methadone? It covers their expenses on heroin, meth, or whatever they take. They're caught time and time again on tests, yet they're on the program and I hear "the program is full". Well then, do I "sin" taking methadone from the black market? I don't think so. With heroin prices I'd be homeless now if I still shoot up.
 
hi this is my first post sorry if its in the wrong place. i am in scotland and on 180ml daily supervised and the thought of even reduction terrifies me never mind cold turkey. but my prescription is safe been on it for 3 years had to start in prison as it was the only way to get it at the time.

i'm only 26 and hope to be free of methadone by 30, seems like a realistic target i think.

I hope you get sorted out my friend i really do as i have never missed a single dose and just know the horror storries about methadone being awful to kick.

All the best mate!:)
 
I think he's doing very good. I expected more complaining about methadone withdrawal. I know I hated it. It's not that it was strong, it just gets stronger and stronger gradually and it's so slow that by day 4 I felt I was really going crazy. I always experienced mild paranoia during withdrawals so that was terrible.

Supervised intake of methadone has the advantage that you can taper down even yourself not worrying about the amount you've got left. And if you're really like "I want to get off it", you can tell your doctor you want to get off methadone and he should help you with the schedule. Also, if you're on it for a few years, nobody will try to get rid of you as fast as possible. Anyway, if I were on the program and wanted to quit, I wouldn't ask for help any of those doctors around here happy to get rid of a junkie drinking methadone for country's money (well, I pay for insurance and I hardly ever use money taken from me for it)...
 
Thanks adder.. Been tryn not to bitch.. I'm on day10 now with none.. I fliped out and had to go to the hospital yesterday cuz I got so dehydrated and my body kinda lost feeling and then my arms and legs started shacking uncontrolably and I was like wtf?? Cuz although this has been mentally a nightmare the subs were doing a lot compard to not having any ( I know this cuz I perpissly stoped taking the subs to see just how much thay were helping) and let me tell you that didn't last long.. But thanks for the support guys and I know I acted like a dick a few post back but I'm sure you all understand.... But what's with the siezer and dehydrting thing??? Does the subs not take care of that??? Should I take more?? I've been trying to drink water... At first I didn't know what was going on. I could barly move my fingers to clench a fist at first I thought hell trav you probly just fucked up so many nerves iv'ing it so I tried to forget about it. But it just keept getting worse and worse so finally I went to the hospital that's down the road from me and thay said I was really dehydrated. Guess I thought I was drinking enough water... Anyways even this many days into it I've thought about blowing my fucking head off to make it go away (dont worry I'm way to big of a pussy to do some shit like that plus I have a great family so that would never happin just sayin lol ) any thoughts???
 
First i want to take my hat off to you for trying to quit and go cold turkey,but i think it would have been a lot better if you had gone on a program and done this properly.

The best and most effective way to quit an opiate habit is to do it slowly over time with all of the right support in place,a plan that you will be able to stick to to achieve your goal of being opiate free.You need professional help my friend,counseling,holistic therapy and CBT is the way to go.

Statistically those who go it alone and do cold turkey relapse again and again.I wish you all the best in trying to rid your demons the quick way,but they rarely leave in such a hurried fashion.

Phoenix.
 
thanks phoenix

thanks for the suport phoenix. I woulda got into the program beleave me.. But I have a good job but we get laid off for 3 to 4 weeks around chrismas time and I still have to make the mortgage and I have 2 kids that I had to prepar for christmas.. Not to metion the nearest clinic is in minnapolis 46 miles from my house.. I drive a full size truck I simply can not aford it right now..and with that tho I do have the time see that's why I chose to do it now. And I have considered going to unity hospital to there detox but I wanted to give this a try first.. I will if it gets to bad... I once made the mistake of taking subs the next day after taking done and that experince made this go around a lot better you want to talk about felling shitty omg the sub thing was by far way worse. But anyway the thought of going thro this again is not in the faver of methadone any time soon.. And if I do get back on it it's going to be at a clinic next time that's for sure.
 
I know its not that easy for everyone to do a program,i was fortunate that all the facilities were there,i also had a lot of support from the system to which i give thanks for pulling me through,without it i don`t think i would have made it...I would have been just another statistic.

Good luck bro,you know you can do this,may the demons never take your soul again.
 
hey

My rant was from being stoned and doing a 32mg Dilaudid shot. I get lost in my writing. Sorry that it offended you or pissed you off. Sorry if it didn't even help you. Don't read it maybe? I don't know. It's the way I think sorry. I got major experience on both sides of the fence. Being a junkie, being a methadone MMT patient, working in n MMT clinic, being a RN working in Emergency Medicine, & now studying back in school to be a Dr. My mind flows & when it comes to physiology and pharmacology I go off & say more than I even realize at times.

to be a MD? No further comment on that.

I know you meant well by your post but...

The guy is going through methadone withdrawal, he doesn't give a shit if you're stoned or anything about you. You could die tomorrow and he would not care. Stop talking about yourself. By the third sentence I was already tuned out of what you had to say and I'm completely sober and drug free.

How many times did you use the letter "I" as the first person pronoun in your two posts? 12 million?

BTW, I am heading to medical school next year and either the Idaho credentials are far 'different' than the east coast, or you're talking about a PHD in psychology...even that seems like a stretch.

Scroll through the thread, people have already addressed his concerns, now it's about maintenance and support. That's what the man needs.

He doesn't want to hear a 3000 word essay when the same could be written in a hundred, then again you were stoned and IVing methadone or whatever it was8)
 
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Either go to the methadone clinic your self, or go to the ER at a hospital. I would suggest going to a detox clinic but i don't think they would be willing to detox you, it's seriously that dangerous.

I can't even describe how dangerous this is. My rehab facility wouldn't be willing to detox somebody from a 1/4 of that dose. Like, cold turkey is NOT an option.

I honestly think your best option if you can't do any of the other options i suggested would be to use heroin. It would honestly be more safe.

Please do not listen to this poster, asides from the going to the clinic. Going to the ER will do absolutely nothing if you live in the states. I went cold turkey from 100mg of methadone when I was 17. It was hell, but certainly not impossible. You should be able to kick on your own with that much bupe.
 
This situation is certainly kind of a shock for your body. What buprenorphine do is simply activating mu-opioid receptors although it does that only to some extent, that's why it's called "partial agonist". Anyway, it doesn't mean you need to take a huge dose for maintenance. Beside the fact its chemical structure is different than methadone's etc. buprenorphine's target is the same - mu-opioid receptors.

People addicted to opioids very often have problems with proper nutrition so they may lack various micro- and/or macroelements, vitamins etc. and that may cause problems with proper levels of them in blood. Effects like shaking or getting parts of body numb are examples of shortage. The fact you've switched to buprenorphine from methadone has nothing to do with it.

Half-life of buprenorphine varies among people and the same goes for methadone. It's no wonder you could go for a few days after 160mg, others may write there are people receiving higher doses a day, I say it's high. I personally haven't met a person who would receive higher doses than 145mg a day. And most junkies from the program in my city receive doses in the range of 70mg to 90mg and they really look like heroin took its toll on them. However, in your case these 160mgs would have to be divided by days you managed to hold on the dose. But as it is with any drug, some can hold on to methadone for over a day and some have to take split doses because methadone doesn't work for them for 24 hours.

If you want to taper down, 10 days is enough for body to "soak up" with buprenorphine. So you can lower your dose by 2mg now. You wrote it didn't hold you very long when you stopped taking it - well, it won't hold you for days like 160mg of methadone maybe did because it's not really a very high dose of buprenorphine. The point is one dose should hold you for 24hrs so you can take it e.g. on Monday at 6 a.m. because you have to be at work at 7 a.m., then you get home, eventually go to sleep, then wake up and take your dose again at 6 a.m. The problem is when the drug for maintenance doesn't hold you for 24hrs and you wake up in the middle of the night all sweaty and cold. I had this with methadone when I didn't take anything before going to sleep.
 
This situation is certainly kind of a shock for your body. What buprenorphine do is simply activating mu-opioid receptors although it does that only to some extent, that's why it's called "partial agonist". Anyway, it doesn't mean you need to take a huge dose for maintenance. Beside the fact its chemical structure is different than methadone's etc. buprenorphine's target is the same - mu-opioid receptors.

People addicted to opioids very often have problems with proper nutrition so they may lack various micro- and/or macroelements, vitamins etc. and that may cause problems with proper levels of them in blood. Effects like shaking or getting parts of body numb are examples of shortage. The fact you've switched to buprenorphine from methadone has nothing to do with it.

Half-life of buprenorphine varies among people and the same goes for methadone. It's no wonder you could go for a few days after 160mg, others may write there are people receiving higher doses a day, I say it's high. I personally haven't met a person who would receive higher doses than 145mg a day. And most junkies from the program in my city receive doses in the range of 70mg to 90mg and they really look like heroin took its toll on them. However, in your case these 160mgs would have to be divided by days you managed to hold on the dose. But as it is with any drug, some can hold on to methadone for over a day and some have to take split doses because methadone doesn't work for them for 24 hours.

If you want to taper down, 10 days is enough for body to "soak up" with buprenorphine. So you can lower your dose by 2mg now. You wrote it didn't hold you very long when you stopped taking it - well, it won't hold you for days like 160mg of methadone maybe did because it's not really a very high dose of buprenorphine. The point is one dose should hold you for 24hrs so you can take it e.g. on Monday at 6 a.m. because you have to be at work at 7 a.m., then you get home, eventually go to sleep, then wake up and take your dose again at 6 a.m. The problem is when the drug for maintenance doesn't hold you for 24hrs and you wake up in the middle of the night all sweaty and cold. I had this with methadone when I didn't take anything before going to sleep.

Ok i get what you are sayn..cuz it seems the longer ive been taking subs the better my bodys addapting to them... odvi at first my body knew that the subs were not what it was craving.. so tommarow i will lower down by 2mgs and see how that goes....
 
How much suboxone a day are you taking? I would go down to 2mg's and quit, or work on keeping your dose low for as long as possible. Then when you get down to your last suboxone, just break it into smaller and smaller pieces.

Anythings better then quiting methadone cold turkey, so at least your in for suboxone withdrawal now which is alot better, but can still suck.
 
the average heroin addict i believe only needs 4mg of bupe to kill all physical W/D, may take a few hours, need to let ur body get rid of all the muscle sores and crap as the bupe kicks in....me personally and a geroup of 8 people i know who was shooting a bundle of heroin a day habit i noticed only pop 4mg at a time and there fine....for me 8mg got me a lil too buzzed, speedy, felt alot better, up all night, but 4mg set me str8...ppl doin oxys and shit 2mg i feel is good, but sublongual BA is so low u;d have to take more...which sucks
 
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