Opioids Loperamide (Imodium) Megathread v. 2

[Painful One]

My lope wds got really bad around day 7. Very noticeable even with huge oxy usage.

Im out of oxy again, and back on lope. About 150 mgs per day right now. Plan to be around 80 per day in a week or two.

Sucks.

How are you doing Squeaky?
Did you manage to get the loperamide usage down any?

Have you tried skipping days on your dosage? I noticed that I could go every other day on dosing with the loperamide.
That may help to start getting it out of your system some without making you too uncomfortable.

 

[13_forkliftgod_13]

Hey there, was wanting to know if rantidine will work in the same way as cimetidine with loperamide?

 

[Squeaky]

Down to 50-60 mgs lope per day. It took about 10 days from around 120 mgs /day. My body aches all the time. Sucks.

 

[apocalypse_when]

Hey there, was wanting to know if rantidine will work in the same way as cimetidine with loperamide?

I wondered about this myself. If you google the two they seem to both be pgp inhibitors so maybe. In the U.K. cimetidine is prescription only so when ever I used lope I would just drink 500ml of pure white grapefruit juice and that worked perfect as a potentiator to the point that there was no need for anything else beyond maybe some tonic water (quinine in tonic water is also a potentiator) and also makes the grapefruit juice taste better.

 

[Hthr1991]

Today is one week no loperamide. I took my last dose Friday night of 144 2mg pills. It held me through Sunday afternoon really well. By Sunday night I was miserable. I waited as far into Monday as I could to start my buprenorphine but when I did there was no relief. No PW but no relief. Monday and Tuesday were the worst days of my life. Caring for a toddler and two other kids with horrible RLS diarrhea and just wanting to die. Turned a corner Wednesday. Was probably 90% yesterday but still couldn?t sleep at ALL at night. Upped my sub dose to 6mg (I refuse to be on a huge dose) with an extra 2mg at bedtime and slept 8 hours last night!!! I don?t feel anything at all from the suboxone just normal. No more muscle weakness from lope or weird vision or dry mouth or lightheadedness. The last symptom I?m still experiencing which is annoying but I can deal with is about once an hour horrible cold sweats. I am SO glad I made the switch and can put loperamide behind me for good. My dr has a tapering plan for the suboxone if I do not want to stay on it long term. Currently trying to decide.

Holy shit!!?! 288 mg a day!?! That's running huge risks of QT prolongation and death... I wouldn't be surprised if you're waking up feeling half dead, barely breathing although not like overdosing, and looking pale. You need need to have your heart checked with an EKG and must talk to you doctor about a better option ASAP. This is no joke... Your life is seriously at risk. People have died from excessive lope use

Edit: I just re-read it and it honestly seems your doctor is not understanding the seriousness of the situation especially if you say your feeling the cardio issues. It might take a lot longer than 72 hours to switch to bupe without precipitated withdrawals. If you still haven't switched over you need to find an in patient unit that deals with detox where they can supply other comfort meds to get you through the transition period to Suboxone and stabilized. I honestly don't think this is something you should be attempting on your own. I hope you have someone living with you who is helping you with this at least. If not seriously get to an in patient unit where they can monitor your heart and react quickly in case of emergency

 

[Squeaky]

Hthr1991. Beware lope wds last forever. Up to 8 weeks some have said for the acute wds.

My experience switching one opiate for another is that you need to stabilize on the new opiate(bupe) until you are past the acute wds for the old one(lope). Otherwise you feel double crappy wding from lope and bupe together during your taper.

Maybe stay on bupe for 8 weeks, then start tapering.

 

[Hthr1991]

Thanks Squeaky. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I?ve taken Lope and I feel AMAZING! The only side effect is just maybe a bit of laziness not much motivation but overall I feel so much better than I did on loperamide and if I make myself get moving I am fine. Cleaned our whole house esterday and tackling the back porch today! I did end up stabilizing on 8mg subs, 4mg in morning 4 mg in PM. I have no interest in tapering right now. Plan to stay on suboxone long term. I am so thankful I was able to push through those awful withdrawals. I?m the past I?d always rushed out and bout more lope. But the end is near for us wavy lope users there is only one place in town that sells more than 24 in a bottle and thy were running out forcing me to spend way more money on less amounts. I believe before long it will be behind the counter. I wish everybody here the best. Will never touch the stuff again!

Hthr1991. Beware lope wds last forever. Up to 8 weeks some have said for the acute wds.

My experience switching one opiate for another is that you need to stabilize on the new opiate(bupe) until you are past the acute wds for the old one(lope). Otherwise you feel double crappy wding from lope and bupe together during your taper.

Maybe stay on bupe for 8 weeks, then start tapering.

 

[Painful One]

Thanks Squeaky. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I?ve taken Lope and I feel AMAZING! The only side effect is just maybe a bit of laziness not much motivation but overall I feel so much better than I did on loperamide and if I make myself get moving I am fine. Cleaned our whole house esterday and tackling the back porch today! I did end up stabilizing on 8mg subs, 4mg in morning 4 mg in PM. I have no interest in tapering right now. Plan to stay on suboxone long term. I am so thankful I was able to push through those awful withdrawals. I?m the past I?d always rushed out and bout more lope. But the end is near for us wavy lope users there is only one place in town that sells more than 24 in a bottle and thy were running out forcing me to spend way more money on less amounts. I believe before long it will be behind the counter. I wish everybody here the best. Will never touch the stuff again!

Great job!
I'm so proud of you!

I said the same thing as you- " I will never touch that stuff again!"
Agreed!
What a horrible experience.

Thanks for documenting your experience with Loperamide and how you managed to get off it!
I know your generous sharing of your experience will be helpful to many who are "stuck" in this lope problem.

I feel SO much better without the Loperamide too!
I'm so happy you are as well and that you were able to get off the dangerous loperamide dosages.
Congratulations and great job!

 

[kleinerkiffer]

I wondered about this myself. If you google the two they seem to both be pgp inhibitors so maybe. In the U.K. cimetidine is prescription only so when ever I used lope I would just drink 500ml of pure white grapefruit juice and that worked perfect as a potentiator to the point that there was no need for anything else beyond maybe some tonic water (quinine in tonic water is also a potentiator) and also makes the grapefruit juice taste better.

Both cimetidin and ranitidin seem to be substrates of p-gp so both should work depending on the affinity to p-gp while wgj, green tee and garlic seem to directly inhibit p-gp
But I'd advise against using p-gp substrates/inhibitors too boost loperamide as we need those transporters to remove toxins etc

 

[Squeaky]

I read some lady posting her experiences with using lope for opiate withdrawl. Ended in the ER. She said nobody should EVER use it. By her own admission she had been taking more and more until she was taking 144 pills every morning.
My experience tells me this: Loperamide works great for opiate withdrawl IF it is done with the goal if tapering down until finished with opiates. You lived with a boost inside of every oxy you took for a long time. Now you must live with a slap in yhe face for every pill you cut from your day. This lady was trying to keep feeling great on Loperamide in the same way she felt on oxy. It is stories from dumbasses like her that are getting lope pulled from the shelves and ruining life for millions of people who use it smartly for everything from Crohns Disease to heroin withdrawl.
I can tell anybody reading this that it absolutely works. 2-3 days to transition from your DOC to lope. Cut about 10 percent per week. Dose 2-3 times daily. Deal with the wds because you have no choice, and you get to keep your life.

I was at the prarmacy today and I saw exactly what Heather1991 said. The large packages of Loperamide are gone. All because a couple dozen people have died in the last decade????. WTF????
10 times that number have died from Tylenol. 30 times that number die from Elephants!!!! Wheres the war on OTC Tylenol? Why arent we building electric fences to protect from the scurge of Elephant stampedes?

The people running our government agencies are idiots and they spend billions of dollars to fight a war that doesnt exist. I cannot begin to describe how tense I was before my Dr appt today. Worrying that he might cut me off. There is something so wrong with everything here.

 

[Happytara]

Agree. Struggle with depression and even one pill and I?m able to survive.

 

[shirunei]

I've used lope over 10 times to jump off a binge with most of those being a fent mix. In my experience it's best to take as small a dose as you can stand and ride out the peak of withdrawals for 2-3 days then cold turkey the lope. It won't get rid of all the withdrawals symptoms but it will make things 60-70% better. Unfortunately we can't trade one addiction for another. I would much rather withdraw from a short acting opiate with physical and most mental effects gone by 7 days then a weeks long horror show.

Your mileage may vary

 

[apocalypse_when]

Personally I found that if enough lope is taken with the right potentiators and alongside 600mg pregabalin a day and 100mcg clonidine at bedtime (and maybe 10-20mg diazepam, although I've found this isn't really necessary, but it's nice if you have it) then it can kill all withdrawls, even fentanyl WDs stone dead. The problem is though, that the amount of lope needed gets into dangerous territory (ie. above 200mg/day). It can maybe be used for a day or two a month to bridge gaps in script converge but anything more than that is playing Russian roulette IMHO.

 

[Squeaky]

Anybody calling themselves an expert who is reading this thread is most likely skimming through the vast number of pages here and only picking up the parts that they agree with. They write down or quote what parts the agree with and just ignore everything else.
These folks then become a resource for our political leaders who use that partial information to create laws and run our lives.

 

[Lorne???]

Loperamide is dangerous, or can be, but it's sale shouldn't be restricted because of a few people

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

It wasn't just from the people having arrhythmias and ADR's that brought down large quantity lope but the report of misuse from online sources, mainly from 2005-2011 by the Department of Health & Human Services. It was as much of the DARE program as hospital admissions.

“I Just Wanted to Tell You That Loperamide WILL WORK”: A Web-Based Study of Extra-Medical Use of Loperamide

Many websites provide a means for individuals to share their experiences and knowledge about different drugs. Such User-Generated Content (UGC) can be a rich data source to study emerging drug use practices and trends. This study examined UGC on extra-medical use of loperamide among illicit opioid users.
Methods

A website that allows for the free discussion of illicit drugs and is accessible for public viewing was selected for analysis. Web-forum posts were retrieved using web crawlers and retained in a local text database. The database was queried to extract posts with a mention of loperamide and relevant brand/slang terms. Over 1,290 posts were identified. A random sample of 258 posts was coded using NVivo to identify intent, dosage, and side-effects of loperamide use.

To design effective prevention and policy measures, the substance abuse field requires timely and reliable information on new and emerging drug trends. Although existing epidemiological data systems, such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the Community Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG), and the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), provide critically important data about drug abuse trends, they lag in time. Additional methods are needed to expand access to hard-to-reach populations and to enhance early identification of emerging trends.

There is an enormous amount of information available online about illicit drugs and the World Wide Web has been identified as one of the “leading edge” data sources for detecting patterns and changes in drug trends, and as a useful tool for reaching hidden populations.Many Web 2.0 empowered social platforms, including Web forums, provide a means for individuals to freely share their experiences, and post questions, comments, and opinions about different drugs. Such user-generated content (UGC) can be used as a very rich source of unsolicited, unfiltered and anonymous self-disclosures of drug use behaviors from hard-to-reach populations of illicit drug users

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633632/

 

[Squeaky]

The numbers dont lie, and yet the numbers seem to be completely ignored by policy makers(unless of course the numbers happen to support their bad ideas). Why spend billions of dollars to solve a problem that barely hurts anyone. We have real problems like diabetes, Autism, influenza (the list goes on and on). How about we prioritize the diseases we throw money at and fight the war on pooping-pills last?

Loperamide is(was) cheap. And it absolutely works. The government ought to be using the information collected from online sources to create an education plan for those using it for opiate withdrawl. NOT inflating the negative effects from a few people who choose to abuse it. Why are we interviewing a nurse who saw 3 new cases of Loperamide abuse last year when we are not interested in the first grade teacher who saw 20 new cases of Autism last semester?

This is politics, not public safety. Im using it, not abusing it. And it is a lifesaver for less than my copayment just to get a prescription for oxycodone or a single pill on the street.

 

[Ne0]

Personally I found that if enough lope is taken with the right potentiators and alongside 600mg pregabalin a day and 100mcg clonidine at bedtime (and maybe 10-20mg diazepam, although I've found this isn't really necessary, but it's nice if you have it) then it can kill all withdrawls, even fentanyl WDs stone dead. The problem is though, that the amount of lope needed gets into dangerous territory (ie. above 200mg/day). It can maybe be used for a day or two a month to bridge gaps in script converge but anything more than that is playing Russian roulette IMHO.

It stops WD's because it's opioid, so it's same if you took oxycodone. It also gives you WD's but thyere pretty short lived, after 1 week it's over. Biggest dose have been 220mg for me and I nodded. But I've overused it and it has lost it's magic. Phenibut, gabapentin + loperamide gave me so good high that it reminded oxycodone, I had to manually breath, so it's dangerous.

I've used 10 different opioids and I can say that loperamide can give powerful high if taken big amounts, at first 60mg gave nice feeling, but 100mg gave nodding. That was when my opioid tolerance was zero, now I would need 200mg. It also boosts any other opioid, it can make 60mg oxycodone very powerful if you take about 100mg loperamide.

 

[Squeaky]

I have the opposite effect. Loperamide seems to cancel out oxycodone. Taken together in doses like 100mg lope + 60 mg oxy makes me a little fuzzy, but thats wito no tolerance to either. The 60 mg oxy by itself should stop my breathing, but the combo just puts me to sleep.

 

[apocalypse_when]

When i used to take it, I always drank between 500ml and 1 litre of pure white grapefruit juice (cimetidine is prescription only in the uk and so harder to get) and it potentiated the lope well enough to cancel out even fent withdrawls but i never tried it without the WGJ so dont know exactly how much that contributed