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...