HEROIN IS A DRUG TO MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY

THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT A LIFE WITHOUT HEROIN



Friday 12 October 2012

Desperately Seeking An Alternative to Methadone...

I JUST FOUND OUT I live three minutes from a "major shopping area". What? Loads of shops selling untaxed under-the-counter tobacco? And anything you like, as long as the packaging is in Polish? Well if that's major, then maybe I do...

I have been desperately keying things into google to try and find an alternative to methadone treatment. Before you say: Subutex/Suboxone is NOT an alternative for me. When I tried it my sleep shrivelled down to 4 hours per night, every night. Two weeks later it was still at 6 hours max. All this is a really good way of triggering a manic episode, because it always starts with reduced sleep, (eventually shrivelling to about 6 hours, once every three days. Or about 2 to 2.5 hours a night, on sleeping pills.)

I do not want to play with my mental equilibrium as well as experimenting with ways better than methadone of getting clean.

The problem isn't that there are no or few alternatives: every opiate and opioid out there ~ including heroin itself (that is, prescription diamorphine) ~ could be used to treat heroin addiction. The issue is that the government of the UK does not want to tackle this problem, has no coherent strategy, and just wants to sweep the whole issue under the carpet.

If methadone were really so brilliant, you wouldn't see the same pattern in almost all users: when they're short on money, they'll stick to their scripts willingly. When money comes, the first thing they do is score more heroin. I'm sorry, but this is just the way it is.

A true treatment would obviate the DESIRE to use on top. Methadone has never helped with this. Ever.

The research shows (of course) that prescribing heroin to heroin addicts reduces all use "on top" significantly. And that the savings in crime and criminal justice are enormous. (By the way you can test whether somebody is using street heroin on top of a pharmaceutical heroin script, because street heroin contains impurities the pharmaceutical grade stuff does not...)

Last year, I went weeks on end without dabbling in heroin. Problem was, I was having a psychotic episode at the same time, the most marked symptom of which was a severely elevated mood. I actually went higher than I've ever gone on crack. And that is saying something. Which probably partly explains my extreme vehemence against drugs at that time (why spend on drugs when you're higher than drugs already?)

So I have bipolar mental issues complicating this matter badly.

I don't know what to do. Really, I'd like to go on "MSTs" (that is, extended-release morphine pills). Or DFs (dihydrocodeine). Both are used in this country, and on the NHS, yes both to treat heroin addiction. Only finding the former is about as likely as finding a hen's tooth on your doorstep in the morning. And the latter seems to be used mainly in police stations and (sometimes) prisons. The main problem with DFs is, you have to take them every four hours and if you forget you'll rapidly start feeling dire. Morphine just sounds bad, especially to people who don't realize that methadone is actually FAR MORE DANGEROUS.

Ukh I don't know what to do.

One tiny, twinkling ray of hope comes from Australia, where researchers have discovered a way of blocking the immune system's response to morphine, that may actually prevent morphine addiction (and therefore heroin addiction) ever occurring...

Technorati: new treatment for morphine addiction...

Peter Biskind ~ methadone kills twice as many per year as heroin

If you don't believe methadone is extremely hard to come off, have a look at some of these... the first few out of 39,348 posts on the subject...




QUENCH: DREAMS
This doesn't properly get going until 2min44 into it but it's still v good...




THIS IS SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL
I found it via DJ Juno's blog.
She used to DJ at the parties I used to go to...
This isn't a techno track though. You have to watch and listen. The words are spoken by Carl Sagan...


11 comments:

Bev said...

If enouh people complain about it. Will they offer some thing better?
I dont know.
The only drugs I ever used was Coke which made me to talkative and pot and the stuff you inhale from a bong and some peoples pills when I was curious about it.Im not curious any more.
I didnt get mush from them.
How have you been?
Heres a nice little kiss for you XoXo

GLEDWOOD said...

How have I bin? I'm survivin' darlin'

"Didn't get mush from them.." sounds like what happens to me now on 'eroin.

I don't know whether I want or need anything different. Maybe that's just a different alley to get stuck up...

MAIN reason I want something else is that the something else-s ~ like dihydrocodeine and morphine are FAR EASIER TO GET OFF!! than nasty old methadone, which was never intended as a detox drug, only a maintenance drug...

Bev said...

Have you tried the Polish cigarettes?I wonder if the Polish stores in my area sell them. I will tell my ex hubby to check that out.May be there milder.He has a bad cough these days.
XoXo

Bev said...

Oh I see. Its very hard geting off.That is both body and mind dependence right?

Gledwood said...

(never intended... i mean when dr vincent dole "discovered" methadone in nyc back in 1960something)...

Polish cigarettes? Yes something called Mars Lights back in 1992 or so, they were considerably heavier than Camels, Marlboros or Benson and Hedges...

The modern ones might be milder...

Mental and physical? Yes. How will I ever get clean????

And stay clean???? I have no idea!!!

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Bev said...

Hi.
Me again.
That is a beautiful video on the pale blue dot.
It really makes you think.And may be our struggles are so tiny lost in space.I wish I could float a round all over it.Would be lonely and cold.
My sisters personality was always agressive & controling and hostile way before she got the drug induced disorder.She was always in trouble even as a kid.
Her personality is not related to the disease I think.
I was diagnosed with major depression but I dont want dwell there.XoXo

bugerlugs63 said...

Hi Gledwood, I'm not sure why you focus so much on getting off the Methadone, especially if it's down to 30ml . . . The bigger thing to let go of is the gear. We both know this. Yes they can say all they like that Methadone is more addictive, and maybe it is . . . but I doubt you will pine for it when it's gone, and you can wean comfortably in 1mls at the end . . . And 70% (?) of the prison population are not there because they were commiting crimes to buy Methadone. It is the gear that needs to go first. I don't think it matters what you use to stop the withdrawals, it's a means to an end . . . hopefully. Or it should be. We use on top of the Methadone because we want to use, or have a compulsion to use and not because the Methadone doesn't "hold" us, it does. I know it's hard, I'm struggling to do one day clean, but I really don't see Methadone as the problem . . . I don't know. Just saying. With love, as always x

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GLEDWOOD said...

BUGERLUGS: 70% of the prison population were not there committing crimes to buy methadone ~ I love that!

Getting off gear PROPERLY and FOR GOOD I don't know

I have threatened myself with death, threatened myself with everything and nothing works

BEVERLY: mental health is such a minefield. I have tried amateur diagnostics on people I know, especially one person who has at least a double, if not treble psychiatric diagnosis (from the drs) this person is such a mess sometimes it is unreal. In the end I think mad people are just mad and the labels bipolar, depression and schizophrenia were only ever meant to describe patterns of illness, not the place you go to when you have completely lost your mind...

tc said...

Don't be to hard on yourself.. I am proof positive that this can be done.

I was hardcore addict for 20 some odd years... starting out on coke & then mixing a little heroin in to take the edge of the coke comedown. I found I liked the heroin much better & switched. We had a friend who lived in Thailand & he used to bring in 10 or so ounces for us every couple of months so we had a fairly clean supply & a bit to sell on the side to keep us going. My habit ranged from about a gram to two-ish a day.

In the early 2000s, our source dried up & my bf & I split up & I never saw the old friends anymore. I managed to find a local dealer whose dope wasn't too bad & kept on with him for a few years. I never really had tried to quit before but it was getting too much... and after more than 20 years of poking myself umpteen times a day, my veins were shit. I just got tired of it.

I got on a methadone program but was still fixing a couple of times a week until my dealer told me I wasn't worth the effort anymore as I was only chipping... god I was so furious at the time but I haven't stuck a needle in my arm since. That was May 5 2007.

The hardest thing (besides missing the dope routine) was how I felt. I had been in a drug daze for so long I didn't know how to deal with any emotions because my solution to almost everything had always been to stick a needle in my arm.

I was on methadone for maybe 2 years & just slowly weaned myself off... got down to about 10ml a day & then slowly down to 5ml over the course of a few weeks - then I started alternating times I would drink it so that it was 36 hours between dose & then just started skipping days.

I celebrated 5 years clean last May (I don't count the methadone). It DOES get easier. I rarely think about it now & the dope dreams stopped years ago.

All my best & good luck to you :)