Methadone?

[ladyamalthea]

Hello everyone. I post more often on some of the other sections of this forum, but I had a question that I was hoping some of you might better know the answer to.

My 20 yr old sister is a heroin addict. She was on suboxone and told my parents that it wasn't working as well as she had hoped. So, she has switched over to methadone.

Here's my question: she's on first offender probation at the moment. Can she get in trouble for being on methadone?

[Munky]

If she's prescribed it by a doctor and is using it solely for recovery purposes, then no, I don't think she can get in trouble. Might be a good idea for her to get a note from her doctor before she goes in for any urinalysis tests though, just to be safe.

[wooforever]

Before she starts taking the medication, if she has Probation Officer she needs to go talk to that person first. Or talk to someone and get it in writing that it is okay for her to switch her meds. I would not take that chance of getting in trouble for something that stupid as switching meds without find out if she would get in trouble.

[bvaljalo]

Suboxone 'not working as well as she'd hoped', eh?

Well, it certainly works to keep you out of withdrawals, keeps other opiates from getting you high, and lets you live a pretty dang normal life while you're on it.

Methadone, on the other hand, whilst it CAN help you live a much more normal life if you take it properly, can also get you high, and does NOT block other opiates from getting you high. It's also much harder/more painful to get off of when the time comes. Most people drag it out for YEARS because you have to taper really slllllooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy off the stuff.

So I wonder ... what exactly it is about suboxone that isn't working 'how she'd hoped'? How long was she on it? Had she taken any methadone in the weeks prior to switching to suboxone (cause that'll make it not work well for a couple weeks)? How much heroin was she on, and how much buprenorphine (aka subs) was she taking in response?

Personally, I think switching to methadone from suboxone is a really poor choice for anyone but the MOST HARDCORE opiate addicts. There *are* some people who are on so much dope that bupe won't work for them, but these people are *very* scarce, statistically.

If you start out on methadone, that's different, because it's very hard to switch from it over to bupe. But the other way around? Regardless of the probational situation (which I don't know the answer to) ... I think she's made a mistake, personally.