Ahh, so you were getting a tramadol script. That makes sense because I always had a hard time finding Tramadol. It would come around here and there like Dilaudid but it wasn’t steady like the Percs were for me. I guess I would have done more had it been more available.
I appreciate your knowledge

It’s always good to have someone knowledgeable in our field lol. I absolutely always have benefited from them as well (opioids/opiates). I wish it were more readily and safely available. I hate that the bupe has naloxone. Major bummer.. I never achieve that full body high and burts of energy. I’m on 16 mg a day atm. I’m not sure if that’s considered a high dose? I’ve been trying to taper by myself and not mention it to my dr because I want the extra subs for when I need it.
As for experimenting with other opioids while on the bupe, I’ve tried it once and got pretty sick. In the beginning of my suboxone journey. I was on a super low dose too of 4 mg. I was so bummed out when I realized that I couldn’t mix my favorite pills with the bupe, to say the least.
Yesss, I’m all for legalization. When done safely they can bring so much relief and peace to ppl that would benefit from them. I would much rather be on an opioid regime than MAT
Yeah, it was actually my moms.
Me & her moved when I was a 18-19 to a different state & her doctor put her on tramadol for sciatic pain.
They were unscheduled back then too. She use to get 180 a month. And I could some times go into the pharmacy & refill them twice in a month because doctors
and pharmacists were idiots back then & actually believed it was "like another tylenol" since it wasn't scheduled.
But she never used them. And I actually got into them because I didn't have a weed dealer when we moved.
So I raided my moms pills (she let me tho) one day and tried out the tramadol & quickly discovered that it annihilated my depression, gave me more energy at work
and I could have fun for hours listening to the same songs over & over & feeling completely content. And so I started taking them & eventually they ran out one month and I felt sick as a dog. I was still 19 & didn't understand what was happening at the time. Until I finally realized after some reading that I was in withdrawals.
From that point forward, I was hooked. Every month from the age of 19-29 (maybe 30) I went through tramadol withdrawal. Every month I had to beg my mom to call in that refill or go to the doctor to keep them coming. And they kept her on them all those years. Eventually toward like 2015 and beyond, they finally started to acknowledge that tramadol was an opioid (even though European countries knew it was for decades before this) & started cutting her script from 180 to 120 to 90 to 60 and then eventually to only 30 pills a month by the time 2019 rolled around. I lived with my mom til I was 32 by the way due to a lot of mental health issues (and being an addict obviously).
I always see all these articles about people getting settlements & shit for getting hooked on oxycodone, yet nobody talks about how easily accessible tramadol was in the early-mid 2000's. I can't be the only person out there who started off their opioid journey with tramadol. lol It was all doctors were willing to give back then. At least in my area.
My mom preferred me on tramadol & heroin though. She even told me that once. lol Cause she saw how stupid and asshole-ish I could be on shit like alcohol. But when she saw me on opioids, I was always cleaning our house/apartment or talking her head off or getting things done. She knew I benefitted greatly from this class of drugs & I think that's why she continued to fight to get that script every month for me up until the day she passed away.
But yeah, I spent a lot of years on tramadol. I have so many fond memories of long walks I use to take, headphones on, just feeling amazing & content with the life. I haven't felt that feeling in years & years now. Even buprenorphine & hydrocodone can't replicate some of the beautiful times I had on tramadol. Not only is tramadol's metabolite (O-desmethyltramadol) a full agonist, but tramadol is also a TAAR1 agonist, meaning it releases serotonin, similar to ecstasy, but obviously not as strong as ecstasy. lol But the TAAR1 agonism gives tramadol it's own unique feeling. A lot of people think tramadol is also just an SNRI (which it is), but I think it's SNRI qualities are quite weak in comparison to it's opioid effects & other effects. Weak enough to almost be negligible.
I came acoss some tramadol surprisingly last summer. Spent a week on them. They were nice but they lacked a lot of my favorite qualities they use to have. I think being on buprenorphine all these years has done something to my ability to enjoy tramadol fully now. But it's still one of my favorite opioids next to heroin.
16mg of buprenorphine a day is definitely a high dose. Some places in Europe use 0.02-0.04mcg of buprenorphine every few hours for pain. If that helps put into context just how potent buprenorphine truly is. Hell buprenorphine is technically much much stronger than heroin even. But since it's only a partial agonist, it's not going to provide the same amount of pain relief or "high" as a full agonist would. But with that aside, opioid naive people could definitely get pain relief from micrograms of buprenorphine. Bupe starts to give less pain relief though the higher your dose is. Because it eventually accumulates in your body (due to the long half-life) and then you hit the "ceiling effect", where taking anymore bupe won't do anything.
I'm truly hoping some day we see opioids legalized!! So much death, crime, etc.. could be done away with if people could just get their drugs safely & be educated on how to use them safely.
Buprenorphine definitely saved me from a viscious cycle of hell, but I just don't understand why people can't just stick with the opioid of their choosing. I mean I spent a decade and a half taking opioids without any doctor supervision & I did just fine & never once overdosed or anything. lol Adults should have that right. It's ironic & stupid to me that I can legally destroy my life with alcohol, but if I want to better my life with an opioid, I'm a "junkie criminal". Only time I even came close to ODing was when I got a bag of fentanyl for the first time. Thankfully I was smart enough to know that my usual heroin was brown/tan/grey & would have a vinegar smell to it. And this was white powder with no smell at all. So I knew to tread carefully & only take a small bump at first to test it. And thank god I did cause that shit had me nodding harder than any opioid. To the point where I felt like I was gonna fall asleep (and prolly die). And that was just from a small bump, hardly the size of a match head even. Had I taken my usual dose like it was heroin, I probably would have OD'ed. There was almost no euphoria either. Or at least none of the content, peaceful & empathetic feelings that genuine heroin gives. I told my dealer to NEVER give me fentanyl ever again. And he didn't. lol Fuck fentanyl. I feel sorry for the new generation of opioid fiends who will never get to experience the REAL pleasures of heroin. Instead they get this dangerous, clinical feeling crap of a synthetic opioid instead. Yuck. lol
Anyway, I appreciate the conversation!

I love talking about drugs, but I think it annoys the hell out of everyone close to me in real life. lol I rambled quite a bit there.
Have a great weekend my friend! Cheers!