hello everyone, buprenorphine program questions for EXPERIENCED only, I NEED FACTS.

hey everyone, i have been on a buprenorphine program for about 8 monthes now, it has saved my life and im very grateful alive for it, lol. (get it grateful dead? ) now, although it is great for me and i do love suboxone, i have found that not only does subutex help me better and much easier to manage and maintain on the white subutex pills, but they are also less than half of the price suboxone brand name is (tex is 2 dollar per pill, sub-oxone is 11 dollar per strip) the question im asking is can someone tell me what i can say to my dr other than the usal bs that the naloxone gives me headaches or i cant affordthe brand name?... i think mr duck might have an answer to this maybe and i know its diff. for every state but im just trying to get some feedback and figure out how i can start getting them, i just dont like the strips to begin with and then o ntop of it they have naloxone in it which is another chemical/drug i do not want to put into my body, buprenorphine saved my life and i love it, but i cant say the same for narcan, i have never OD'd so it hasnt had to saved my life yet, jk i would never do enough like i usedto to risk . thanks for any help, pls dont give opinion, i need facts, i have been on the program a long time so im not totally lost or anything, im just looking for feedback, later

I would just be honest with him. You can abuse suboxone just as fast as subutex, so it really shouldnt be that huge of an issue. Just tell him you dont like the naloxone in the suboxone, you dont like strips, and most importantly tell him that the cost is a huge issue for you. If youve been on maintenance for a long time with the same doctor and youve got a good record of sticking to the program and what not, i dont see it being an issue.

thx for the encouragement friend. i agree about the abusability, its all the same idk whats the big deal and why drs give such a hard time, ive tried with 2 diff dr and no luck, hopefully the one i am seeing today will hear me out, thx again

When I was on bupe was right around when the generic Subutex came out and I asked my dr about prescribing it because it was so much cheaper. We had a nice chat about how buprenorphine has a higher affinity for the mu receptor than naloxone. I've IVd Suboxone, the naloxone doesn't stop it from working.

MrEDuck said:

When I was on bupe was right around when the generic Subutex came out and I asked my dr about prescribing it because it was so much cheaper. We had a nice chat about how buprenorphine has a higher affinity for the mu receptor than naloxone. I've IVd Suboxone, the naloxone doesn't stop it from working.

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i was IVing subs for awhile man, they are very powerful opiate man, hard to stop.

I will have been on suboxone for five years this September. I took 24mg a day for the first 3 of the 5. Now I am down to 12mg and feel pretty confident that I can eventually be done with this. I feel like I've been on them for way to long, but I have been clean for 5 years too. I never abused them mainly because too much did give me a terrible headache and the high wasn't worth it to me. The only thing I worry about with stopping subs is that I will use again, to be expected I suppose (to worry). If I can help you out just pm me bro. I agree 100% with budzilla on just being honest with the doc. Good luck.

Also I think there is a generic suboxone now, not sure about subutex though. May be another option for you.

I dont wanna hijack but i also dont feel like i should make my own thread on this question.

How hard/easy is it to get on subs? Like what are the requirements to get on a sub maintenance program vs a done program? And what does the costs look like? Like what is your cost for your script? And what kind of money does the doctor want per visit?

Right up the street from me is a clinic that does both suboxone and methadone. Im interested in getting on one of them, but currently im technically unemployed due to some bullshit at work (long story, but ill be getting my job back eventually) so im not sure if my insurance is still active or not.

Budzilla420 said:

I dont wanna hijack but i also dont feel like i should make my own thread on this question.

How hard/easy is it to get on subs? Like what are the requirements to get on a sub maintenance program vs a done program? And what does the costs look like? Like what is your cost for your script? And what kind of money does the doctor want per visit?

Right up the street from me is a clinic that does both suboxone and methadone. Im interested in getting on one of them, but currently im technically unemployed due to some bullshit at work (long story, but ill be getting my job back eventually) so im not sure if my insurance is still active or not.

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for me anyway it was pretty easy to get on subs. from my experience its pretty much economics. it took me a few tries to find a dr that worked for me but once i did, it is paradise. i pay 150 per month and 3 dollar for 56 strips 8mg bupe/ 2mg naloxone. im more than happy with that. i take about 4mg per day and save up the rest for personal use later when i may not be so lucky to have a dr in my corner. its just like any other sched 3 drug, its possible to find the good drs but its not easy either, easier than sched 2s and harder than sched 4s lol. good luck friend its all one big game ive noticed. one big huge moneymaking game.

My experience was I made an appointment with a sub dr and got a script. The session and the month's script cost less than a week of dope. They know why you want it and are happy to prescribe it to you. I would really give bupe a try before even considering methadone. The clinic policies suck. Bupe you can actually receive as a maintenance med and still get treated like a human being who deserves dignity.

aknight3 said:

. good luck friend its all one big game ive noticed. one big huge moneymaking game.

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That is so fucking true. Its all about money.

yea man i hear it....it sucks really...not about YOUR health, its about YOUR or THEIR MONEY

I don't know anything about the suboxone or others, but the methadone I do. I used the methadone to get off my speed balls back in the 70's, & u can still get off on the methadone & its worse on ur body than the drugs, & harder to kick. I have been looking into the suboxone to c if it will help me to get off all my pain meds thanks to 20 yrs. of spine surgeries. Now Im a legal junkie, I have a 100mg fentanyl & sometimes 2 every 3 days, & eat # 10 hyydros about 25 at a time, usually about 70 a day. So if u can shed some light on these new things they have out now it would really b great because I really need to do something before my liver goes out for good.

You'll probably not be fully held on bupe at first but it'll be a few weeks of mild withdrawal instead of the short intense hell that is fent withdrawal. I really hope you're cold water extracting those hydros. That's an alarming amount of acetaminophen if you aren't.

MrEDuck said:

When I was on bupe was right around when the generic Subutex came out and I asked my dr about prescribing it because it was so much cheaper. We had a nice chat about how buprenorphine has a higher affinity for the mu receptor than naloxone. I've IVd Suboxone, the naloxone doesn't stop it from working.

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ya I've heard of a bunch of people shooting that shit up and never once have I seen someone get clean that way or the methadone clinic and really your better off kicking dope cold turkey as withdrawals from the alternative last a lot longer then a week.

No I haven't slammed anything for over 25 yrs. but with a ton of spine & other surgeries putting steel in me, & a terrible bout of cancer I have managed to have the old dope fiend get ahold of me again from 20 yrs of this. I really don't want to trade one drug for another, & the funny thing is that pot does more for my pain than these damn pills ever thought of.

aknight3 i have been on suboxone since 2008. Your not switch you Dr. will not switch you to subutex if he has not already. The reason for this is not only for the fact that the subutex can be shot up, because so can the suboxone, but that the suboone has naloxone(sp?) in it that is a blocker to opiates. The subutex, as im sure you are aware of, does not. Any reason that you give you DR. for wanting to switch will be looked at as you just trying some old junkie lie. Do not bring up the fact of the price difference because his immediate thought will be that you have been maintaining on the current price and that you have found ways to spend much more on the street to get high. Why do you think they ask you how much you were using on the street during your evaluation? its not to try and figure out what to start your dose at, believe me. Its to see that you were able to maintain an expensive habit on a daily basis. if you don't believe it? just ask any person you know thats in the clinic that you are at what they started there dose at. I would bet that they will tell you 8mg and it got bumped every so many hours until they had comfort. if you have been able to manage the strips so far why do you want the subutex? if you have been able to pay for the suboxone then why would he switch you? stay completely away from "i don't wanna put anything else in my body i don't need" bit, because that's almost laughable. its all going to look like you just wanna get high.. Not trying to piss in your cereal, just being real about it....
tyedyed60 your habit sounds a lot like mine used to be. before i was on suboxone I was buying 250mg of methadone off the street every day. You are so righ about methadone being way harfer to come off of. I kicked for about 45 to 50 days on that shit. Suboxone has helped me more then anything i have ever been on. It does shit for pain, but really curves my addiction. In my opinion I would go cold turkey on the drugs for about a day, 2 if you can stand it. Then, with a tolerance like yours, I would have at least 40mg of suboxone on hand. I would start out by taking 8mg when the shits and cold sweats start from the DT's. wait about 3 hours, if that did nothing take another 8mg......and so on and so forth. Remember suboxone was not ment to be something you can abuse, but you can. If your wanting it to get off of the other shit then just take enough to get your body feeling semi normal. I hope you find some relief soon man, I feel your pain. Suboxone changed my life. It can do the same for you if thats what you want.

I was on suboxone pills for a while, the octagon shaped orange ones. My dr switched me to the film and everything seemed fine for a couple of months,but then I started to have a reaction under my tongue. It would swell up and hurt like hell, it got worse by the day because each day the film would burn the shit out of my mouth when I dosed and it wouldnt heal.

I told my dr about it at next appt and she said that a couple other people had reported that too. She mentioned that they were discontinuing the suboxone pills and switching everyone to film, but since I didnt seem at risk for abuse, she would put me on buprenorphine.

If you want to switch to bupe maybe you could say the subox films burn?

Edit* After reading it again it looks like you were asking how to get them to switch to subutex,not buprenorphine,in which case I misunderstood.

methadone was the only thing available when i was slammin, that i know of, i went cold turkey. i know what its like to kick, but i don't agree with all this new crap that big pharma is making a killing (literally) on. that being said, i dont look up or down at anyone trying to get off dope using these, it's a scary endeavour any way you do it. i know people that were on dope for a year or 2 that have been on the methadone for 20. only difference is where your coping your fix. good luck ak, i just passed 25 years clean in feb., it can be done my friend.

Subutex is buprenorphine, naloxone is in Suboxone to scare users, bupe has a higher affinity for the mu receptors. Treatment of a bupe overdose requires repeated adminstration of nalmefene or having an IV bag of naloxone with supportive breathing.
While bupe can be abused it's no worth it, taken correctly its a miracle, you can get your life back together and slowly wean yourself down.