Why do people say it's nearly impossible to get high on heroin taking Methadone?

[longbeach1986]

I have read this over and over, that if you are on the correct dose of Methadone, that using heroin is a waste and you will not get high.

I have been on methadone maintenance for two years at 85 mg a day, and I also use heroin (IV) most nights, and it feels pretty much just like it always did when I was using just heroin. Main difference is that I don't get withdrawals, I don't feel like I NEED it, and I can work and function and feel normal during the day.

I actually pretty much just use the heroin as a sleep aid since I am forced to take methadone in the morning. Once I finally earn take homes (my piss is always dirty so I have to go in every day but I don't really mind) I imagine I won't feel a need to use as often before bed.

I'm not recommending what I'm doing, I'm just saying that I take a pretty high dose of methadone, and I NEVER miss a day, and getting high on top of my dose has never been a problem, yet I'm always reading things to contradict my experience.

 

[Crashing]

kool

 

[Drderms]

wow man that's pretty awesome ... Don't assume everyone is like you tho

 

[chrisincville]

Methadone is meant to build in your system to the point where it saturates your receptors so they cannot accept any more drugs, thereby tricking the brain into thinking it's always high.

If no more of methadone or any other opiate can bind to said receptors, then it cannot work..hence, it would be wasted.

 

[RTrain]

You apparently metabolize the methadone too fast to only dose every 24 hours and maintain non-withdrawal state. Meaning its probably not the ideal route for you, but the alternate options (Suboxone) are not easy, especially switching from 85 mg a day of methadone. Obviously take homes would help if you could pop say 20-30 mg at night and be good until the next morning. I also metabolize opiates fast, I have only tried Methadone a few times, not used it for maintenance. But it only lasted about 6 horus for me before withdrawal started to set back in, that's why I knew it'd be a bad plan to go that route, I couldn't only dose once a day and not be kicking like crazy 16 hours later when I tried to sleep.

And to answer the main question, its most certainly not impossible to get high on heroin while on methadone. But at one point you hit a dose level of methadone where your receptors are saturated with the methadone and it binds to those receptors stronger than heroin, so you won't be able to get high until some of the methadone wears off. In your case it is wearing off by the end of the day so there are plenty of free opiate receptors for the heroin to agonize.