also, has anyone else seen a significant spike in heroin use? its almost become acceptable in the pill circles i know of, which is concerning since alot of people dont realize that heroin is no fucking joke.
I forgot what thread exactly, but we had a long conversation about this topic. My take on it is that heroin use hasn't suddenly spiked like many think. It's just about who you know at the time. 5 years ago I knew a ton of heroin users since I was more involved in the game, partially because of what I said in my reply to the quote below this one. Now I only know a few heroin users since I don't really associate with many users outside of the 2 people I will sometimes cop with when I don't use my dealer (who isn't a user) so I wouldn't really know if there was a spike in use or not since I don't hang out with users.
I know that most of the people that I used to get high with 5 years ago when I started are still involved with dope. Some are worse now than ever, some have balanced out using and leading a somewhat normal life, others rarely use, and there are 1 or 2 who actually stopped. Back when we were all getting high together it seemed like everyone was doing dope, and we would see people we never would have though would be doing dope while meeting up with our dealer.
I'm sure that the reformulation of some prescription opioids cause a little spike in heroin use, but you also have to consider that most of those people were probably going to make the switch to heroin sooner or later, but the reformulation just made it happen sooner. I mean people have been getting hooked on prescription pain killers and then moving onto heroin for a while now, so that's nothing new. Now I'm wondering if less people are going to become addiction to prescription pain killers if they are harder to get or are the shitty reformulated ones, and what effect that will have on the amount of heroin users. But perhaps heroin will just be so acceptable that people won't need to get hooked on pills before trying it. Who knows, kids are crazy these days.

This might be getting slightly off-topic, but what do you guys think is the reason Suboxone is so over-prescribed? They had me on 24mg, offered me 28mg, and that did more harm than good because I just *turned most of it into heroin* and kept the habit going. Doctors might not know the ins and outs of it, but they aren't total morons. They have to know that they are giving people way more than they need. Is it really just that they want people on so much Suboxone that there's no way to bounce back and forth? And they keep the patient with a heavy Suboxone habit to keep getting his/her appointment money? I mean that would kinda make sense, but at the same time they have to realise that most people are just going to turn the extra Suboxone into more heroin...
I was prescribed 32mg/day and I had told the doctor that I had a vicodin habit and was messing with oxycodone occasionally. He knew I wasn't even dependent at the time and just wanted it for the cravings, so started me on 16mg/day and worked me up to 32mg since I told him I still had cravings.
I think it's over-prescribed because so many people want to get more so they can sell them or stash them away for if/when insurance is up, so they tell the doctor that their dose isn't holding them so they get more.