A new program based in Vancouver,B.C. Canada is using marijuana as an aid in with drawing from methadone.The marijuana is bud placed in capsules and rated in strengths from 30-100 mgms.The patient is brought down in methadone dosage as always.The difference is that the patient is given capsules of marijuana to be taken at bedtime to ease any discomfort from the drop in dose.The one person I know that has gone through the program successfully is off the methadone and expressed that the discomfort was minimal and that she:"slept through the whole thing".There were a few(4)days of minor discomfort but the marijuana eliminated the long nights that the lessening of a methadone dosage can cause and the weeks of sleepless nights following the last dose of methadone were non existent.The person in question went from a dosage of 75 mgms a day to nothing in just under two months.This after a 6 year addiction to methadone and many years on the street doing heroin and cocaine.I am as aware as anyone that the major factor in any of these success stories is that the person in question wants to quit and is ready to do so.That being said,this was a really easy withdrawal and I was as amazed as anyone that marijuana was in any way effective in easing the pain of the experience.This is a major improvement over the clonidine that was used when I was imprisoned the last few times.In the early seventies the prison(Okalla) used to use methadone to withdraw addicts from heroin.It was a painful experience but far less harmful than the alternative.Then the doctor that was sympathetic to addicts retired(he had delayed his retirement long into his 70's as he knew as soon as he left the institution would revert back to the cold turkey that the other B.C. prisons used)and sure enough the medical staff decided that the heroin was so diluted that methadone was no longer required.Perhaps one day they will take a page from this program and use marijuana,at least as a sleeping aid while kicking a habit.I always felt that an addict did more time in the first month than other inmates did in a year.Lets hope that this program is given the attention it deserves.I'm afraid that as soon as the ruling against federal drug laws is over that the Harper government will pretend that this and other programs that are showing success will be stopped and filed away in some dusty corridor in Ottawa,never to be heard from again.They will have a tough time explaining why a program that actually got someone off methadone with relatively little discomfort failed to inspire them but they have a long history of ignoring evidence in favor of moral doctrine.Lets hope the program has enough data to support it's continuation in spite of the conservative governments prejudices.
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making methadone withdraw eaisier
I have been addicted to methadone and heroin off and on for the last ten years and I can tell you that withdraw from methadone is far worse (I once went cold turkey after being on 160mg a day for 2 years) -it lasts for over a month and you don't really feel "normal" for a good six months. Heroin is a piece of cake compared to that. Additionally there is very little you can use to taper yourself off of methadone because of its blockade effect. I am once again hooked on methadone and have managed to get down to 40mgs a day. Recently I have discovered something that for me has been something of a miracle - the herb kratom. It has been used for centuries in asia for opium withdraw because while it is not a opiate it is a mu opoid agonist - meaning it tricks your brain into thinking its getting opiates. And unlike any other opiate it goes around the methadone blockade effect. I went 5 days without dosing (Im a stage 5 so I get 5 take homes) and using kratom I felt no withdraw. I have heard of many others who have gotten of entirely (which is what I plan on doing- I am going to get 2 weeks of special take homes and just use kratom, if at the end of two weeks Im still felling withdraw(without the kratom at least I can make the switch to suboxone.) I ordered kratom from several different companies and some are a scam that send fake kratom; I went to erowid and found that they reccommended bouncing bear botanicals. I put the link below
https://www.bouncingbearbotanicals.com/ethnobotanicals-kratom-c-60_91.ht...
Kratom vendors are having
Kratom vendors are having huge sales right now, 50% off at many websites. Kratom.com for one, they have good maeng da. I recently had to leave my methadone clinic because I couldn't afford it, I had detoxed from 60mg a day down to 10 or so when I left. I toughed it out through 5 days of withdrawal, but it wasn't getting much better so I ordered some kratom. It has worked wonderfully to ease the withdrawal. It is important to taper off of the kratom, and don't stay on it for more than a few weeks or you can have withdrawal from it too.
Kratom for pain med withdrawral
I have a 3 level failed fusion in my back. I live in chronic pain and have been on pain meds for 8 years. The pain meds went from Vicodin to Fentynal and several in between. Taking the meds was hell. Getting them was hell. I found out about Kratom by researching opiate withdrawal and have been pain med free for the last six days. I don't know how long it will be before the cravings stop. I drink Kratom twice or three times a day. I have no withdrawral symptoms. But I want to be free of all of it. I will be glad when I wake without any cravings! Then I'll know I'm out of the woods.
Patients, prescription pain killers, and Methadone
I think that doctors and pharmaceutical companies have a lot to answer for when they prescribe narcotics for pain, implying that being "dependent" is not being "addicted". Just wait till you try to get off the pain killer. Now you are put on methadone, and you are treated like an addict. I suspect that coming off of methadone is far worse than coming straight off of the pain killer itself, because it certainly affects a lot of organs in the body. Getting off of methadone is hell. And the pain is still there, or perhaps it is new pains. I am curious about ways that can make withdrawal easier.
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