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Written by Ted Jackson
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February 2009 |
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...Abused?
There has been increasing talk over the past couple of years about how Suboxone, the hugely successful drug for the treatment of opiate addiction, is being abused. For example, a recent AP report out of Milwaukee carried a headline “Suboxone Abuse Grows After Outpatient Use Authorized” and quoted police officers saying that they have seen instances of street trafficking in Suboxone by people looking to get high off the drug. Well, all we can say is the joke is on you if you buy Suboxone from a street dealer looking to get nice and high. The fact is, Suboxone’s active ingrediant, buprenorphine, is not a particularly good drug to get high off of, as it has properties that limit euphoric effect.
And furthermore, Reckitt Benckiser, the drug’s manufacturer, has taken other steps that sharply limit the ability of addicts to abuse the drug. So, yes, Suboxone probably is somewhat abusable, but not very much so. And given the soaring death rates from methadone, a drug that is very abusable and gets you very high if the dose is big enough, Suboxone is a huge leap forward and will likely virtually replace methadone when it goes generic.
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