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Bupe Can you help me figure out why subutex didn't work?

jjacobsen

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 13, 2008
Messages
80
First let me say I spent an hour trying to find an appropriate thread to put this under, but just couldn't.

My brother was on a little less than 3/4 a gram/day heroin habit, for about a year. He didn't take subutex until around 36 hours after last dose of H. He was dry heaving for many hours before he did so. But once he started the subs, the dry heaving/nausea/withdrawal didn't stop. We were told to take half an 8mg pill, wait 20 min, then take more if he didn't feel better. He did so, and never felt better, after getting up to 24mg. In the end he just suffered until H could work again and was back on H, but of course it took awhile before even THAT didn't cause dry heaving, along with all liquids and food.

And advice? I've heard one can be allergic. Is there a way of determining that?

Thanks.
 
An allergy would not cause it not to work. (You would just get typical allergic type symptoms).

Where did you get the buprenorphine? Was it prescribed and obtained at a pharmacy? Are you sure H was the only drug he was taking at time or anywhere near this period of time? Did he have other symptoms of withdrawal also? Is it possible that had some kind of stomach bug/illness going on also?
 
How did he take the bupe? It works best if you put it under your tongue, if he ate them, it won't be as effective.

It could also be possible that he had a concurrent illness, like a stomach flu or something.
 
thanks for your reply. answers:
no, sickness is doubtful. he didn't put under tongue--just swallowed like normal pill. thanks for advice there. It was definitely withdrawal--other symptoms as well. H definitely the only drug. He is a 3 or 4 cigarette a day smoker, and went 24 hours without (in jail), but i doubt that would explain much. The subutex was not prescribed, but bought from friend/supplier. they were pink and round. possible incorrect pills?
 
Suboxone/subutex doesnt work at all swallowed.

Suboxone can look pinkish but its orange afaik. The pinkish/orange pills that I have seen are not round, more like a stop sign.

I think the generic suboxone is white and every subutex Ive ever seen is white also.

You were looking for the suboxone mega thread, it is usually on the front page.

If you get a pill google the numbers or letters that are on it with whatever name its supposed to be. If nothing comes up you prob got ripped off.
 
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thank you! i have taken things sublingually, but they are usually kind of crumbly/melty. these pills seem very hard. do you just hold them under the tongue until they dissolve, for like 10 minutes? Weird how I can't find explicit instructions--it just says 'take sublingually' everywhere. thanks again.
 
24mgs of bupe didn't pull me out of withdrawal with a similar habit. Bupe just doesn't work if your habit is big enough.
 
wow, are you serious, 24 mg doesn't WORK for even 3/4 g/day!? i haven't even tried yet and my habit is 1g/day. I read someone posting on the big bupe thread that you don't need much and he had a massive habit and 4mg was enough to start with. So many different stories, it's hard to keep straight!! Argh!!!!
 
Just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean that it wouldn't work for you. My personal experiences are background noise(anecdotal evidence) compared to the vast amount of junkies that bupe has worked for. I do know that the dope I was hooked on is particularly potent, from personal experience around the world and from DEA reports.
 
wow, are you serious, 24 mg doesn't WORK for even 3/4 g/day!? i haven't even tried yet and my habit is 1g/day. I read someone posting on the big bupe thread that you don't need much and he had a massive habit and 4mg was enough to start with. So many different stories, it's hard to keep straight!! Argh!!!!


There are instances where your habit will be too big for Suboxone to help much will withdrawal. Do you shoot, snort, smoke the heroin? If you shoot that much then its probably going to not do much to help you.
Of course you have to sublingually take them, its about 5-6x as potent that way and that is why its designed to be taken that way.

4 mg is enough to start because after that there is no more "high" from Suboxone because it only has agonizing effects on the opiate receptors up to around that dosage, anything over that only acts as an antagonist, which basically means it just blocks other opiates more. Realize you are just masking the acute withdrawal of heroin with the buprenorphine in Suboxone. Since your habit is more than what 4 mg of Suboxone provides you will still be sick for a few days, that is just the way it is. And 4 mg of buprenorphine = around 45-60 mg of oxycodone.
 
thanks Rtrain that's really helpful. I do smoke it, but have been using a year straight, and off and on the year before that. So what would I need to taper down to in terms of H habit (and for how many days on that lower dose?), do you think, to make it so the subutex makes the withdrawals mild, as i've read they seem to do for so many on this site, even those using a good deal? The main thing for me is I can take any of the symptoms (have withdrawn 3 times before), but I can't take the vomiting, and would do anything to avoid that.
thanks!
 
Didn't you do any basic research? The fact that subutex and suboxone is made to take sublingually should be the first thing one should know about them..

You just wasted all of those pills, unfortunately.
 
just bc sub did not work for one guy taking a g/day it does not mean that it universally will not work for anyone with that kind of habit. certainly it should help to some degree anyway. hold the pills under your tongue for ~30 minutes or so; do not swallow your saliva during this time; do not smoke or eat during this time; etc. research buprenorphine a bit more before you take it, as it has some unique properties you will want to be aware of, e.g., its ineffectiveness orally, or the possibility of precipated withdrawal, etc.
 
Bupe is great and can work wonders. But, after constantly going back and forth between opiates and bupe, it starts to work less and less. I'm having an incredibly hard time right now transitioning back to bupe. It used to be easy.
 
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