Originally Posted by
OChromeIsClean 
Bret! I agree that you are a great friend for trying to help - it's not easy.
I was on pills for about 2 years and struggled with trying to get clean for about a year. I now have 3 months clean. I'm a little younger at 23 but it sounds like we grew up experimenting in a very similar manner.
I had legal motivation (drug court) to get clean and I still had trouble. I actually complete the program tomorrow but I plan to stay clean because things are going wonderfully. If he doesn't have the motivation to quit it's going to be almost impossible to get him to quit.
Anyways, pot will help with withdrawals a little bit but I am willing to bet it will not keep him clean. Suboxone is a great drug, I am on it. I've been taking it for a year (I would stop when I relapsed because it is an opiate blocker) and I am now down to 2mg a day. I think Suboxone will be the best thing to get him on. Some doctors don't really understand it yet because it's fairly new and they will prescribe A LOT. But I cannot give ANY medical advice because that is against the rules here.
Really, I'd recommend him quitting everything - drinking, pot, pills, etc because cross-addiction was a problem for me. I'd quit pills and start drinking like a liter of liquor throughout the night or smoke a bunch of pot or whatever. I think a lot of people will agree with me on this topic - that quitting everything is the only "real" way to recover.
If you'd like you can email or chat and we can discuss this further. I have google chat and aim which I'm not on very often but I'd sign in if you want to set up a time. I'd like to help as much as I can but I don't want to break the rules here.
email - allennyberg (at) *****.com
aim sn - fluxriffs
I appreciate your response, and congratulations on quitting the pills. I will keep all of this in mind tonight when I meet with members of J's family and friends. I wanted to go into this meeting with good information because it is the first time both friends and family are trying to help J together.
I am not too worried about cross addictions, he doesn't drink at all since his pill addiction. This has probably kept him alive. We did smoke a lot of pot in our early 20's but he doesn't fancy it anymore. Now that I think of it, he is on probation so smoking pot would just get him into more trouble.
He is addicted to cigarettes though. But in past attempts to quit the cigs went with the pills. After a line of oxy comes the urge to have a cig basically for J.
I think this medication Suboxone might be something that J will be into trying. He already loves his pills so it looks to be the easiest route. Getting him to a Dr will be a must it seems. (I am not too kind to Dr's and the pharmaceutic companies so this is hard for me, they are the ones that start these addictions)