How hard is it to get a bupe script. I work full time (well more like double time) and I don't have the time to go to a clinic to get dosed.
Not hard, most clinics that do daily dosing have a waiting list and a couple of doctors on staff to prescribe the patients that attend. Alternately, you can see a GP and they can prescribe methadone or buprenorphine. Most physicians can prescribe for a certain number of patients (I think it's 5, from memory) before they need to do a course which allows them to prescribe to up to 10 patients. This is all from memory, so forgive me if my numbers are off.
If you're in NSW, I was given a phone number for the Divison Of General Practice and told to call and that they would be able to provide a list of doctors that are accepting new patients for opiate replacement therapy. I got this number from my local 'Drug & Alcohol Intake' hotline after they told me that there were 7 people on the waiting list for the local clinic and that they had been waiting 8 months! Not sure if it's state-wide or specific to my local area - Central Coast, NSW (about an hour north of Sydney).
Despite the fact that I had been attending this clinic for some 4 years, prior to a 6 week stint in detox/rehab, they still refused to write a new prescription for me and told me that I had no other choice but to go on the waiting list. They tell me this after taking urine, telling me the doctor will be with me shortly and they'll try and dose me today, and then sneakily calling the police who came and arrested me on an outstanding warrant! Hence, I went to jail without a dose and without a prescription for buprenorphine. I have since been off maintenance (daily attendance at this clinic, as they wouldn't give Subutex takeaways). Of course I always managed to smuggle them out - I had two habits to feed! Mine and my fiancee's. I was on 32mg/day for about 2 years and then 16mg/day for another 2 years until we both jumped off cold turkey.
I am tossing up the idea of going back on maintenance (low dose buprenorphine, i.e. 2mg >), or continuing to use heroin once a fortnight and buying a 4mg of bupe off the street here and there. Since reducing my use from a high dose of buprenorphine and ridiculous amounts of heroin (read: expensive) to try and trample over the bupe, I am much happier. It is much easier to live in mild withdrawal, with a fat couple of shots to look forward to every fortnight, than lugging my ass into the clinic every day and being at the mercy of their "rules".
Once they write a prescription you can then collect your dose from a chemist, or a clinic if you so choose. Sorry for rambling, I've had a shot of ice.
That phone number by the way is: Division of General Practice - (02) 4365 2294.
Ash.
