I agree that support from the closest people is very important. If it weren't for my mum, I would have probably ended up in some squat with 10 other addicted persons or have no place to go and I would still shoot up. Thanks to my mum I switched to methadone numerous times. She knew it's less harmful even if I don't taper down to 0. I did a few times zero myself but I didn't quit shooting up (and there was no problem with getting pure stuff in ampules or lab grade in bulk). I realized long time ago it wasn't getting me anywhere and I suffered more than I had any profits from shooting up. But it took me some time to feel alright with my body and my mind to switch to maintenance drugs permanently (like I wrote, it was bupe for a few months but it didn't work out for me and I switched to methadone, it always helped me although it doesn't hold me for 24 hrs after one single dose like bupe did).
Anyway, why I stopped shooting up was my own decision. Nobody could force me to do so. I think I eventually "grew up" to see that it's destroying my life and it may be too late some day if I don't stop. It turned out it was too late. I can't taper down methadone and I've been on it since February 2010. I'm trying to taper down methadone but no can do. Every time I'm at ~10mg, it gets worse in like 3 days and I get my dose higher, it's a closed cycle and it repeats over and over again. I know I should be treated at the maintenance program. I applied for the program at a few hospitals but I was turned down at each. The main problem is always the program is already full. Besides programs away from my city turned me down for one more reason - I have no place to stay, e.g. in Warsaw to come for the dose daily. I said I know doses are given in such cases for one week if a patient shows evidence he can't make it financially to come every day but they wouldn't listen (it's true, I took excerpts from programs rules...). And well, here it is, my life. I'm also addicted to clonazepam. My psychiatrist who prescribes me clonazepam doesn't know about my other addiction problem and keeps lowering doses of clonazepam which gets me crazy in the end because I don't have enough clonazepam and I don't have enough methadone to feel alright even so I can go out and don't fear I will feel first signs of withdrawal coming. But this is just my country, I guess. Poland is the only country in the EU not accepting foreign patients who need methadone for the time of being in Poland because programs are overpopulated and there are long queues among Poles. I checked a lot of countries and it's ridiculous how a member of the EU can't properly handle maintenance programs. It's sad and the black market for methadone grows.
