Posted by Elizabeth on January 5, 2002, at 3:48:19
In reply to Re: methadone?, posted by stjames on December 31, 2001, at 17:05:56
> The assumption is always that methadone gets you high, and therefor impairs one just like opioids.
Well, first of all, methadone *is* an opioid. But anyway, that's not "always" the assumption. I've encountered people who believe (perhaps because they heard comments such as yours somewhere) that methadone has some special property that makes it different from other opioids (such as heroin, morphine, oxycodone, etc.) that prevents it from causing euphoria, motor impairment, etc. People will develop tolerance to these effects from taking any opioid on a regular basis. This isn't a pharmacological property of methadone; it's a property of how methadone is used in MMT. It's used to prevent withdrawal in people dependent on opioids. Any opioid can do that.
> Keep in mind I am talking about heroin addicts converted over to MMT.
I'm not sure why one should have assumed that, since this thread is not about MMT.
> Tolerance has something to do with it, but the advantage with methadone is that it occupies receptors far longer than heroin.
> This means one is not having to seek a fix every 6 hours and go thru a cycle of significant impairment (on the nod) to less impairment. Then withdrawal and more drug seaking behavior.Sure, that's an advantage of methadone, and it's one of the reasons methadone was chosen as the drug to use for treatment of heroin addiction. Today we have other long-acting opioids (such as LAAM) and slow-release formulations (such as MS Contin), too, and these could also be used (indeed, buprenorphine and LAAM are in use in some places for treating opioid dependence).
> I live in the heroin center of the US, we have more per capita deaths and addicts here than anywhere else.
Does that attract tourists? :-)
> The people I know who are on MMT say they are not impaired by methadone.
I never said they were (I'm very much in favor of MMT and I agree that it's a safe and effective way to help people get and stay off heroin). But that's not because methadone has fewer side effects than other opioids; it's because people on MMT are tolerant to those side effects.
> So I find the question of if one is high or not on methadone pointless. At least in the context of MMT and addicts.
Once again, I'm not sure why you bring up MMT -- the discussion here is about a different use of methadone, in nonaddicts. The question of whether one can get high on methadone is very important if one is concerned about the possibility of becoming addicted to it, for example. If people are led to believe that methadone won't get them high or addicted or cause motor impairment, they are liable to exercise less caution about the way they use it. I think it's important that people not be misinformed about drugs that they might be taking.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:87700
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020103/msgs/88811.html