Opioids Methadone Mega Thread and FAQ v 2.0

[stivsmegg]

i see nova scotia, labradore and prince edward island do not have mmt it says.

 

[Znegative]

What's fucked up IMO about the whole Bupe thing is that there is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE in efficacy between Suboxone(buprenorphine + naloxone) and Subutex(buprenorphine)(buprenorphine), except that to prescribe suboxone, a doctor needs a certain license, and can only prescribe it to a limited amount of patients (though I'm fairly certain that at least that constraint has been fixed up a bit-at least in NYC. I think it used to be a limit of 30 patients/prescribing doctor, whereas now its a lot more, something like 100/doctor). As for suboxone being more "addict friendly" than plain old buprenorphine without the addition of Naloxone, well that's complete bullshit. Just take a look around bluelight, you'll find that many people have shot up their suboxone without Ill effects (on bupe maintenance), myself included. IMO, suboxone is like diamonds, its not really valuable, but the powers that be mark the shit up on it and sell it as some sort of miracle.

Sorry for the rant, but that topic really gets me sore. I was on suboxone on and off for a good period of time, and there was a year when I had to change insurances, and all of a sudden, I had to pay out of pocket for suboxone. I went from a minimal co-pay, to spending hundreds of dollars. Eventually I, nor my family could afford to pay monthly for the strips anymore, so I asked my doctor if I could be prescribed subutex/buprenorphine instead (as it would've saved me loads of money). She said no, even after I made a pretty good case for it. In the end I wound up tapering myself down from 24mg/day to .5mg 2x/day to save money. I continued to get the same amount of suboxone prescribed, but just made my scripts last multiple months. By the time I got on Medicaid I hadn't gotten a new script filled for almost half a year lol.

Anyway, in regards to methadone, I'm pretty sure that in NYC you're able to enroll in a program in prison, or to continue getting medicated if you were already on one. I've been rather lucky as I've only been arrested twice, and the most time I spent behind bars was 24 hours or less, but I remember one of the times when I was being transferred from the local precinct to central bookings, the police officer I was with told me not to tell anyone at central bookings that I was on methadone, but didn't explain why. I didn't (which wasn't too bad as I was on 110mg at the time, so missing a day wasn't an issue really), but I assume that his reasoning was that being on methadone could prolong my stay in CB as they would likely have to medicate me, which would take a bitching long time.

 

[mister right]

Thank guys!!! I know it had to be something in my head. Just like, when u hear people say the blue xanax football's are the best. The round one's aren't even close to the football's. By law it all has to have the same medication it it. RIGHT?????

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

Anyway, in regards to methadone, I'm pretty sure that in NYC you're able to enroll in a program in prison, or to continue getting medicated if you were already on one. I've been rather lucky as I've only been arrested twice, and the most time I spent behind bars was 24 hours or less, but I remember one of the times when I was being transferred from the local precinct to central bookings, the police officer I was with told me not to tell anyone at central bookings that I was on methadone, but didn't explain why. I didn't (which wasn't too bad as I was on 110mg at the time, so missing a day wasn't an issue really), but I assume that his reasoning was that being on methadone could prolong my stay in CB as they would likely have to medicate me, which would take a bitching long time.

They gave methadone in Rikers. It took a while after first getting there but.. they weren't too bad with it. I mean, they didn't give much but, still. Some jails don't give shit.

 

['medicine cabinet']

my clinic is posting signs that they are switching from Vistapharm methadone to mallinckrodts subsidiary coviden. i looked it up and coviden is branaching off mallincrodt as its own entity, im sure meaning cheaper quality product. they even put on the paper how it will have a stronger cherry taste and if any patient feels different, IE weaker, its in their heads.

its all because the private clinic was bought out by some place called medmarc or some shit like that. You know EVERYONE at that clinic is going to be raising hell about the new methadone, saying its weaker than the old stuff and its not as strong. ah well anything to save a buck. i asked all the nurses why the change, asking specifically if it was because medmark got a better deal from coviden than vistapharm and they said they didnt know.

 

[stivsmegg]

They gave methadone in Rikers. It took a while after first getting there but.. they weren't too bad with it. I mean, they didn't give much but, still. Some jails don't give shit.

yeah, my friend says he got methadone in rikers(he lives long island but of course gets bundles in city), he always talks about central booking and stuff. literally every county in the country has its own policy, like i said before, there is a county here that will dose you for 3 days(if on 100 they give 90, 60, 30, notta. never more than 90 though)which is better than nothing at least you get some preliminary sleep but if your lookin at months in jail it does nothing obviously. most counties however in my state(mn) do not dose you in jail and in fact have archaic views on the subject. i just happen to live in the 1 county that does the stupid 3 day dose. as far as getting on methadone in jail like in rikers(which in n.y. they have had to deal with it for a long time and on huge scale)they also do it in L.A. county so its pretty much the big heroin towns that are more acclimated to methadone use, here in one county the doctor told me it was all in my head....uh ok.

 

[stivsmegg]

my clinic is posting signs that they are switching from Vistapharm methadone to mallinckrodts subsidiary coviden. i looked it up and coviden is branaching off mallincrodt as its own entity, im sure meaning cheaper quality product. they even put on the paper how it will have a stronger cherry taste and if any patient feels different, IE weaker, its in their heads.

its all because the private clinic was bought out by some place called medmarc or some shit like that. You know EVERYONE at that clinic is going to be raising hell about the new methadone, saying its weaker than the old stuff and its not as strong. ah well anything to save a buck. i asked all the nurses why the change, asking specifically if it was because medmark got a better deal from coviden than vistapharm and they said they didnt know.

haha, i used to get those pre-packaged vistapharm methadone(made in key largo fla.)bottles at an old clinic, i liked them cuz they have a foil seal so as to not be tampered with. is this the same stuff yor talking about? pre-filled bottles re-labled for the clinic? anyway thats the vista-pharm stuff i got(also had vistapharm dispersable tablets/wafers there). btw i take the cherry mallinckrodt and there is nothing wrong with it, i have been on all of them for appreciable amounts of time and the only diff i noticed was the wafers held me longer otherwise no diff between roxane, vistapharm and mallinckrodt cherry juice....about to drink mine in 30 min too. i start to really need mine at about 3 am, so i take it at 4, i cant skip a day or i get very sick...fast metabolism.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

@stivsmegg : Labrador is part of Newfoundland...kinda, we had it stole from us, but thats another subject entirely, and im not surprised there is no methadone program there, theres barely any people except military and innus who, yes im going to make a generalizing stereotypical joke, mostly just drink everclear and huff gas.

So it's been almost 2 months i've been on MMT, since 2 weeks we found out that my sweetspot that keep w/d at bay, makes me feel normal, and painless to boot! One more month of "clean" piss, (allowed to have psy scripted valium and dexedrine, and the latter i only consume when i decide to program for $ and sex >_> ) and i can have takehomes, 3 at once, then 5 then 7. But is there anybody here who WAS on methadone, was tapered slowly and correctly with their MMT doc ? At first the first doc I have seen was like, you will only stay on it for 3 months, but i havent heard of any time i would have my 'done tapered down yet, as we have just reached my sweet spot 2 weeks and a half ago.

I don't want to be on it forever, i'm at 55mg and I refuse to take any further. When would it be wise to discuss a taper with my doc and what pace, i think the latter here is the most crucial part. I'm not ready to taper yet as i'm just starting to love myself again a bit and feel good and maybe finally use one of my 2 BA's and work. Sick of being on "temp disability", i dont know whats my province's problem about not wanting to put me on "permanent" disability (that just mean 1 year and more money than if temp only" while they will keep accepting me on temp disability for either my psych reasons, pain/neuro reasons and now my methadone doc's reasons one after the other. I guess it's to save money but had I had a correct and sustainable amount of welfare money to start with, I probably wouldn't have gone "all hope is gone" this year and just iv'd dilaudid until i owed the guy too much money and got on methadone, but that's also another thing and I won't rage about it right now.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Now I know the whole point, for me at least, to get on MMT was to stop IV'ing drugs. I didn't stop because I didn't like the high of shooting hydrmorphone, I did because I wanted

a) to save my money, which I wasn't able to anymore because a huge tolerance/daily needed dosage (32 to 56mg of dilaudid a day)
b) to stop iv'ing drugs as I am only able to shoot, especialy cos I can only IV drugs in my hands cos I am unable to register anywhere else, last time I've IV'd something, is in early october this year and the track mark, especially the one that was really huge on my hand still isn't gone
3) I knew methadone was going to keep my pain problems away, which is the first reason I ever bought opiates on the black market to start with at 28 years old, a few years ago, and it indeed sure does well as a painkiller.

Since I got to the dosage I was comfortable with a month ago, when I started to wake up when I wanted and not from feeling withdrawal, I am able to go get my dose 16-18 hours latr no problem, that dosage is 55mg.

But even though I got my life back on track, I missed feeling any sort of high. I was scripted hydroxyzine 50mg to take at night to reduce my intake of valium. Now that I am back at 10mg bid a day tho, I was a month or so having atarax (hydroxyzine) scripted to help their barbaric way too quick taper from it cos benzos ae OMGCARY to use if on methadone and benzo tolerance is not a factor. My pdoc had to intervene personally for me to keep my valium bid script.

I'm back from my mandatory MMT visit, which was the first one in a serie of unneeded ones I'll have to go to for a while since we found my sweet spot of 50gm. I just went there to tell my dispensor pharmacy was open on all days of the holidays and I also got a hydroxyzine 50mg script for 6 months now.

And I gotta say I am feeling high for the first in a long time (in the opiated way) since I found my sweet spot. Now I don't want to encourage anyone on methadone to try to potentiate their juice but I have that to say that HOLY CRAP HYDROXYZINE IS A STRONG POTENTIATOR.

I have nodded hard 3 hours later after having my dose this morning. I didn't think I could nod again, ever. I'm also since a month at 55mg of methadone so I thought my body would be tolerant to it even it is working to cause me to get very ill.

I don't intend on taking it as often as I thought I would now. Anyboy here with experience of methadone +hydroxyzine ? Did it get high/nodding even after being on a steady comfortable dose like it does for me ? Feedback appreciated.

 

[Znegative]

^The thing is that, at least IME, 50/55mg is not a blocking dose of methadone (I'm at 50 too). I believe most people report that its at around 70mg and up that they lose the ability to get a buzz from opiates (including methadone). As it is right now, I can still get high off of IV heroin, and if I take an extra 20mg of methadone, I'll get really fucked up too. The thing is, if you continue to potentiate (which I know you don't want to do), it will be the same as just raising your dose.

 

[adder]

As for methadone substitution as a way of making people stop injecting, I know most of methadone patients on the programme I'm a participant too (but I'm on Suboxone) actually inject methadone syrup. There has been one case of death recently caused by embolism. The syrup is simply too thick to be injected. Besides it's a lot of liquid with 1mg/ml, thus this presents another potentially fatal risk when someone injects his/her whole dose.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

As for methadone substitution as a way of making people stop injecting, I know most of methadone patients on the programme I'm a participant too (but I'm on Suboxone) actually inject methadone syrup. There has been one case of death recently caused by embolism. The syrup is simply too thick to be injected. Besides it's a lot of liquid with 1mg/ml, thus this presents another potentially fatal risk when someone injects his/her whole dose.

Shooting the syrup? That is disgusting and almost a guaranteed disaster. But.. unfortunately I'm not surprised.

If you're going to do that.. it's literally safer to just get off the methadone and go back to injecting H.. which is sad that doing dope again is the better of two evils.

 

[thelung]

DON"T SHOOT METHADONE SYRUP!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is SO dangerous~~~!!!! why would you do this to your body??!?!

 

[thelung]

I'm tapering from 85MG i'm down to 42MG feel fine looking forward to getting to 0MG and getting off so i can get back home - long story; posted most of it on the AT Watchdog forums

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

As for methadone substitution as a way of making people stop injecting, I know most of methadone patients on the programme I'm a participant too (but I'm on Suboxone) actually inject methadone syrup. There has been one case of death recently caused by embolism. The syrup is simply too thick to be injected. Besides it's a lot of liquid with 1mg/ml, thus this presents another potentially fatal risk when someone injects his/her whole dose.

What the fuck am I reading ?

I don't even have takehomes yet and for a very long acting drug with excellent BA when taken orally like methadone I won't be trying to IV ORAL SYRUP MIXED WITH ORANGE JUICE for sure. This warning was added for nothing, not sure anyone reading this thread here is dumb enough to attempt this.

 

[Znegative]

I've tried it to be honest, filtering first with a cotton and then a micron filter (.22), using a 3mL barrel. The methadone I get is cherry flavored syrup 10mg/mL, so the most I injected was 30mg. I would not recomend doing this, even with a micron filter, the cherry flavored oral solution contains sugars which I believe so get through a micron. Not to mention, methadone itself is not particularly healthy on your veins, even if you had the pure chemical or at least that is what I've heard.. Plus, there's really no advantage to this ROA. While injecting 30mg does produce a heavy sort of rush, and the effects are a little different for the first few minutes post injection (there's a sort of drunken sense of intoxication which reminds me of robotripping, though incredibly short lived and not as intense), it ends up just wearing off much quicker, and leaving you regretting taking it in such a manner. Plugging your methadone however, is worth it. The effects begin within five minutes, and it just seems to hit much harder, the effects are more euphoric and anxiolytic, and the duration is just as long as taking it orally. If you look at the relative BA, oral supposedly does have a higher absorption (oral-~80%, rectal-~70%).

 

[adder]

The only reason I posted that information was to show an example from real life that methadone maintenance treatment isn't even 99% effective as a medicine stopping people from using needles. I'm sure there has been an increase of people injecting this thick syrup in Poland because of heroin prices sky-rocketing with its quality decreasing. And there's really no choice in Poland, there's just this heroin freebase brown powder from Afghanistan not worth its price, heroin hydrochloride off-white powder very rare and very expensive, and as for "Polish heroin" (acetylated liquid extract from poppy straw) there's few people making it now and if they do it, they mostly do it for their own use.

I know that only a small number of methadone treatment participants in Poland enter the programme to control their addiction or make a stop towards complete quitting. It's rather Suboxone that is chosen by people who want their life back, be it Suboxone for indefinite period of time or a substitution to get stabilised mentally to be ready to quit eventually. But the situation in Poland is different from that in the U.S. or most countries in Western Europe certainly. As for substitution it's like a transitional place between Western world with well established rules and methods for treating addiction and Eastern world where substitution is non-existent at all.

 

[Znegative]

^compote?

Yeah, there are people at my clinic that spit out their dose and shoot it up with a 10mL syringe in the bathroom
. I think that methadone clinics should include additional dosages of palfium to take home to help with that damn needle fever.

 

[adder]

It's "kompot" actually. I don't know why people started translating it literally to English as I haven't seen anything similar to "kompot" sold e.g. in England.

I think that methadone clinics should include additional dosages of palfium to take home to help with that damn needle fever.

Dextromoramide has an euphoric rush with very fast onset and short duration so I doubt that it would help the situation. Unless shooting Palfium pills would be considered as a solution. But it would also cause flooding the black market with Palfium.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

I know someone who had Metadol 10mg pills, pain treatment methadone pills, and he did shoot some with a wheel filter and said something along the lines of a heavy rush resembling a little from when he was injecting that canadian 20% pcp putty in the first 5 mins. Probably due to the d-methadone. That would have been something I would have tried before I got on MMT, which implies, for me to drink 3 months straight my bottle of hydrocodone/codeine brown syrup mixed with kinda quality orange juice too (canadians will know the Oasis brand of juice). So in only 3 weeks i will now be allowed to bring in 3 takehomes at once then. Even if i was still in my mentality of lets get fucked on fake reward pathway stimulating shit as much as possible, I would never fucking consider injecting a 4oz bottle which is 95% orange juice (prolly more in weight).