
The Anti-Addiction Pill That's Big Business For Drug Dealers - peterwwillis
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/23/240242221/episode-391-the-anti-addiction-pill-thats-big-business-for-drug-dealers
======
aoeuaue
I started taking suboxone 5 months ago and it (almost literally) saved my
life. Before finding out about it, I thought I was going to be stuck in a
hell-hole of heroin dependence forever. You wake up one day and realize that
you are completely fucked, and that there's nothing in the world to help you.
Suboxone changed that. I started taking it, with no/minimal side-effects, and
immediately stopped doing heroin, stopped craving heroin, stopped everything.
Finally, I can live in peace without there being a short-fused time bomb just
waiting to blow up inside of me.

Thanks to suboxone, I can program and think and live again.

~~~
DigitalJack
So does this mean that the opiate addiction is still present, but satisfied by
suboxone? In other words, if you stopped taking suboxone, would the heroin
craving come back?

~~~
mumbi
Heroin cravings never leave, it's the physical withdrawal you want to avoid.

~~~
rxzv
That's extremely misleading and generally over exaggerated by anti-drug
advocates. The cravings get weaker as the weeks progress and by a full year or
so, they're completely gone. What remains is the _nostalgia_. You think back
on the time you were doing them and remember how good you felt (while
conveniently forgetting all the bad times) and you crave it like you crave
something from a memory.

For me, (8 years clean) it's like remembering Christmas morning when you were
a child. Now that I think about it, it's almost exactly like that. I don't
crave it like a cigarette (You don't have an "urge"), instead it's like
recalling a happy memory and feeling nostalgic. Why it's misleading is because
the same could be said about virtually anything you can feel nostalgic about.

------
refurb
As an interesting aside, the company that makes Suboxone attempted to prevent
generic companies from entering the market.

Apparently there have been a number of poisoning caused by children taking
Suboxone tablets. What Reckitt (the maker of Suboxone) did was create a new
dose in the form of a film that dissolves in your mouth. Each film came in a
seal packet that was difficult for children to open.

Once the patent for Suboxone was nearing expiration, Reckitt introduced the
new film dose form and pulled the tablets off the market. Once the patent
expired, Reckitt asked the FDA to deny approval of any new generic forms of
the tablets in the interest of public safety (in essence giving them an
additional patent life as the film was a new patent).

The FDA didn't believe the risk was enough to stop generic versions of
Suboxone and two new generic forms were approved earlier this year [1].

[1] [http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/government/fda-
approve...](http://www.drugfree.org/join-together/government/fda-approves-two-
generic-versions-of-suboxone)

------
girvo
Suboxone has helped me beat my 6 year long opiate (heroin) addiction. It has
it's own issues. I'm lucky enough to live in Australia, where it was simple to
get on the program, and it costs me $5 per day (less if I pay two weeks in
advance).

I'm currently on 8mg, down from 28mg a year and a half ago. Ask me anything :)

Ps. I'm writing a book based on my experiences at the moment. You can find a
draft chapter here: [http://jgirvin.com/the-things-we-
do.html](http://jgirvin.com/the-things-we-do.html)

------
chm
'Reindeerspotting' is a good watch if anybody's interested. Subutex/Suboxone
has its merits, but it's not a silver bullet.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeerspotting:_Escape_from_S...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeerspotting:_Escape_from_Santaland)

------
marincounty
Only take bupenorpine if you are really addicted to heroine. Doctors who
prescribe for opiate addiction are allowed only 100 patients. They(Doctors)
will drag you in for needless expensive visits. I say only if you are really
addicted to opiates, because I see people switching to this drug because they
"think" they are addicted.

The drug is not something you want to get addicted too.

If you do end up on this drug, try to find a doctor who's not trying to make
money off your misery. Might be hard?

There's two forms of bupenorpine. One has a opiate blocker (nalaxone) in it--
It is expensive. Try to get your doctor to prescribe generic bupenorpine. Once
you get bupenorpine in your brain, your craving for opiates will diminish. If
it dosen't you need to do the whole 12 step dance.

The high of bupenorpine wears off after a few months, so it's no panacea.
Remember, you will be addicted to another drug, but at least it's legal. Try
to take the smallest dose possible. The slight euphoria wears off! People
don't understand that? After a few months you will be addicted to another
drug. Your Doctor will become your drug dealer. The fun wears off real quick.
I have no reason to lie. And yes--I'm just one person. You're not reading the
results of a well done double blind study.

There's a lot of misinformation about this drug--even among the MD's who
needed to take a special class in order to prescribe it.

Again, don't start it unless you've bathed your brain in opiates for a long
time. A while is not a few months. Even if your hooked to the gills on smack,
the media makes detox so dramatic. I've seen people scared to death, thinking
they will die from withdrawal. Dying s very rare, unless you have the health
of Jerry Garcia.(huge addiction, obese, and diabetic, etc). If you are
realitively healthy you can taper off. This goes for Alcoholics too. You don't
necessarily need to spend your last 40 grand on high priced Promices. Taper,
Taper, Taper. Ten percent a day. Doctors won't tell you this because of the
small chance you die--liability.

Again, don't start this drug if you can. They don't know the long term
effects. If you are one of the unfortunate ones, and use bupenorpine, make the
best of the situation. I have heard of peope getting off it, but they taper
their dose, and have a fair amount if decipline. If you are trying to get off
bupenorpine, stay off the drug recovery websites; everyone exaggerates, and
the stories will just scare you.

My honest, blood written advise is Never take opiates. Especially, if you even
think you have a slightly addictive personality, or biology? Don't take that
free Percocet offered by you friends. I honestly feel long term opiate use, or
buprenorpine use damages the pleasure centers of your brain.

Good Luck--and please save any lectures. This is just my opinion.

~~~
jlgreco
Delirium Tremens is no laughing matter. Most alcoholics won't get it when they
go through withdrawal, but those that do will very likely die without medical
treatment. With modern medical treatment, the death rate is 'merely' _" 5 to
15%"_.

I don't think most people treat alcoholism as seriously as it deserves; myself
included.

~~~
smcl
Agreed in that few people treat it with the seriousness it deserves. In fact
it's almost a joke for many people - "haha, I'm such an alcoholic" etc. I'm
sure if they'd ever seen the real effects of alcoholism they'd think twice
about throwing terms like that around.

I drink a decent amount of beer and wine so I'm pretty far from tee-total, but
misusing the term "alcoholism" bugs me a great deal.

~~~
user249
In my case it started to become obviously serious when I woke up with the
shakes and needed some to feel right and stop shaking. I didn't really take it
that seriously before then.

------
runarb
Unfortunately Subutex/Suboxone come with it own set of problems:

Detox drug is Georgia's new habit -
[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/world/europe/12iht-
drug.19...](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/world/europe/12iht-
drug.1954947.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

Suboxone: The New Drug Epidemic? -
[http://americannewsreport.com/nationalpainreport/suboxone-
ne...](http://americannewsreport.com/nationalpainreport/suboxone-new-drug-
epidemic-8821747.html)

How a nation of junkies went cold turkey -
[http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113051/](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113051/)

------
refurb
"The government spent tens of millions of dollars developing Suboxone."

Where is this coming from? It was developed by a private company.

~~~
dnautics
listen to the podcast, your answers are there, but it sort of amounts to the
government having to bribe the manufacturing company to develop it (because
doing so would break a ton of laws) and it is unpatented, so the company that
makes it issued some pretty harsh demands.

------
Oxxide
Please be fully aware of the risk of precipitated withdrawal when considering
taking bupe. If you're an addict, you shouldn't take it until the withdrawals
hit full swing.

------
vezzy-fnord
What about ibogaine? It's a naturally occurring substance and has been used to
treat addictions for all sorts of hard recreational drugs. It's also the prime
drug that's always mentioned when talking about breaking addictions.

Hell, it has entire religious movements dedicated to it. It's the Lisp of
drugs.

~~~
girvo
It's certainly no miracle cure, nor is it even particularly effective for a
lot of addicts. Two of my aquantinces attempted it. One stayed clean
afterwards for about six months, the other was back on it in weeks (he passed
away a year later due to an overdose).

Of course, n=2 does not a theory make, however their experiences certainly put
me off it enough to not attempt it. I'm on Suboxone ORT instead.

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vaadu
I suspect the private prison industry, some in law enforcement and politicians
do not want this drug readily available. It could be significantly disruptive
to their wallets and positions of power.

~~~
ianhawes
This is actually a really good point, and I'm glad you backed it up with
concrete evidence.

------
jmotion
Ibogaine treatment is the best way to get over heroin addiction (apart from
strong will power of course).

~~~
girvo
I was going to write something much stronger in response to this, but I've
decided this will suffice:

You are wrong, and frankly generalisations like that will get people killed.

