Prisons awash with heroin substitute (UK)

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Prisons awash with heroin substitute
Jamie Doward and Johnny McDevitt
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer


The use of a heroin substitute as a recreational drug is spreading across Britain's prison system 'like wildfire', according to new research. In some prisons as many as 70 per cent of inmates regularly take Subutex illegally, the research found, and many former offenders are returning to civilian life with a taste for the drug.

Subutex, like methadone, is prescribed to heroin users to help wean them off addiction. Available in pill form, it is less addictive and less likely to trigger fatal overdoses than heroin or methadone because it does not suppress breathing as much. It is more expensive than methadone and not prescribed as extensively.


According to research published in Druglink, the magazine of the charity DrugScope, the illicit market in the substance is growing exponentially. The pills - known as 'subbies' - are popular with prisoners because they are small and easier to conceal than heroin or crack. The drug, the brand name for the opioid buprenorphine, is also harder to detect in tests.

An 8mg 'subby' tablet worth £5 on the illegal market outside prison is worth £40 inside where it is crushed and snorted or, say reports, injected.

The magazine says the drug is widely used around jails across the northeast and northwest of England. Significant levels of Subutex use among ex-prisoners have also been detected in Middlesborough, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham, according to Druglink's latest annual street drugs survey.

The increasing illegal use of Subutex has served to highlight the problems of drug abuse in Britain's prisons, according to experts. It comes at a time when the Prison Service has suggested it may have to cut back on drug testing in prisons as a cost-cutting exercise.

The previously unrecognised popularity of the drug in Britain's jails saw it added to the list of substances tested across 40 prisons by the Prison Service between April and July this year. The illegal use of Subutex is also starting to alarm experts in other countries. Authorities in Georgia report that the drug has become the most widely abused narcotic in the country.

Link!
 
They arent?
Dont they stop the effects of other opiates too?

They are sold overseas in places like Asia, India, Africa etc. as "mild" painkillers in pharmacies. Where they still sell barituates (with additives that make u sick for suicide attempts or recreational usage) for pain releif, most pharmcies over the counter.
 
well the bupe u get inthe states has nalaxone in that activates if u crush it so it cancels out if u inject or sniff it. but just bupe tablets can get u high.

i think
 
I always wonder about prices of drugs in prison. I mean, how does someone feasably get £40 for ONE tablet whilst they're in jail? They earn like £7 a week if they have a job in there. I'd find it hard to pay for a habbit that expensive and I have a full time job!
 
^
I'd imagine that they trade shit and you could get money put in your commissary account. At least you can here in the states.

Zodia, you're wrong about the naloxone. Check out the thread I linked to.
 
I really don't understand how people find bupe to be recreational. Perhaps if you have little to no opiate tolerance...
 
Deathrow558 said:
I always wonder about prices of drugs in prison. I mean, how does someone feasably get £40 for ONE tablet whilst they're in jail? They earn like £7 a week if they have a job in there. I'd find it hard to pay for a habbit that expensive and I have a full time job!
Click to expand...
I would figure people fund addictions on the inside the same way they do on the outside: with ass.
 
the way they fund there habit is by working together with other prisons to get them prescribed to you, once they are you half them with the person who has helped you get them.

to buy them in prison they use mobile phones and get the money wired to a bank account using western union.
 
bupe

I have a hydro tolerance and I find suboxene to be much more recreational than methadone. They are very recreational in my opinion.
 
drew345 said:
huh I didnt think subutex was recreational?
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Uhh yes, buprenorphine is extremely recreational in individuals who have a moderate to low tolerance to opioids. 0.2 mg IV is roughly equal to 10 mg of morphine IV. So if your tolerance warrants you taking more than 16 mg of bupe at a time (which is very high tolerance according to that conversion); you wont feel any euphoria or "high." This is due to the drug's unique pharmacological profile of being a competitive, partial agonist--there is a ceiling limit on its effects.

And btw, from experience, once you start taking buprenorphine on a regular basis; the recreational effects start to fade. Even increasing your dose wont work in adding effect.. (unless your maintenance dose is <1mg).

Zodiaccupuncture said:
well the bupe u get inthe states has nalaxone in that activates if u crush it so it cancels out if u inject or sniff it. but just bupe tablets can get u high.
Click to expand...

*Sigh* No this is incorrect. Buprenorphine has higher affinity for opioid receptors relative to naloxone. This means that naloxone only slightly blocks bupe's effects. Infact, suboxone can even be injected w/ no adverse reactions if the appropriate dose is used.

Also, naloxone's bioavailability when taken sublingually, orally, or by insufflation is somewhere near 2-10%--therefore, in regards to suboxone, using any of these routes of aministration will make the amount of naloxone in your system negligible, i.e.- you'll get pleasurable effects.
 
Deathrow558 said:
I always wonder about prices of drugs in prison. I mean, how does someone feasably get £40 for ONE tablet whilst they're in jail? They earn like £7 a week if they have a job in there. I'd find it hard to pay for a habbit that expensive and I have a full time job!
Click to expand...

I am surprised to see that quote of such a high price differential between the street and inside. When I was inside, it was often the case that prices were only a bit higher than street - or even in some cases lower. I've seen oxy 20s sold inside for $5. Heroin was cheaper in one joint I spent some time at than it is on the street in most cities. E tabs were expensive ($20 for decent ones) but that's more because they weren't very popular and thus were more of a specialty item.

As to how folks fund a drug habit while locked up, there's a few primary ways. First, if you have access to money from the outside, you just have it sent to an outside associate of your inside dealer - or directly to his commissary account (more dangerous as it is easier to track). Some legit jobs inside pay fairly well - skilled folks such as electricians or HVAC techs can make $500-800 a month. . . remember, hacks don't do work at any but the highest security joints - the work is done by inmates even including admin/secretary work for the wardens and other cops. $500 goes a long way inside, as there's no rent to pay!

And, yes, folks also make money inside doing illegal shit. No surprise there. There's people who specialize in smuggling stuff in (or out), retail dealers, specialists in storing/hiding contraband safely (I did some of this for extra funds), and consultants on drug testing and how to beat tests. . . and that's just referring to the drug side of things. There's also folks tattooing (always), protection rackets, and 1000 other "hustles" from doing laundry to sex favors. If you can imagine it, it's done inside in some form or another. A few years before I got to one joint, someone had come up with a system to smuggle in specialty eats like lobster and steak - still hot from the restaurant - for hefty prices. Prison ingenuity knows no bounds. . .

A friend I did time with had done time on a previous bank robbery charge back in the 90s and he ran out his 4 years inside high the whole time on H. It's not a bad way to do time - years blur by - but it's a bitch to kick when you get back out. I did a bit of that while I was inside, but didn't want to risk getting hit with a random test as I got close to the door.

Drugs are very popular in prison - just like on the street. Not everyone does 'em, but if you want it you can get it inside. . . for a price.

Peace,

Fausty

ps: don't even ask about "dry cell experts" as you don't want to know :o
 
phrozen said:
I'm guessing they have nothing to do with dry cell batteries, do they?
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Alas, no.

I feel fortunate that I never had to do a dry cell myself, and there's skills I just don't plan to develop in my life if at all possible. Being a dry cell specialist is one of those skills.

Peace,

Fausty
 
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