Bupe Veteran Heroin Addict recent relapse, am I high off Bupe?

[strawberry69]

I was sober for a good couple of years, when I was 15 I started smoking heroin and at 16 I was injecting it. My habit wasn't massive, I probably shot a dub a day for 3 years. I quit when I turned 18 and had only relapsed once prior to now. I am 24. Fent wasn't on the streets when I was a kid, now that it's rampant I've decided just to smoke and could feel side effects of withdrawal 24 hours after my last session. So I got my hands on Buprenorphine/Naloxone sublingual film.

I'd like to think I was pretty familiar with this stuff since I used it multiple times to get clean off heroin 5 years ago, I cut the strips into 5 rectangular pieces and dosed about an hour and a half ago and I feel that warm, nodding feeling that dope gives me. Does this usually happen? I had done suboxone many times in my teens, I even injected the film at one point and boofed it because I was desperate. Do I feel high because my tolerance is so low? I haven't been smoking much H, I usually smoke for 3 days and take a break for 3 days on and off for the past two months, sometimes I'd slip up and smoke more days in a row than intended, hence my withdrawals.

Edit: It was a singular strip of suboxone and I cut it into strips of 0.5(?)mg. I also took clonidine with it and my usual SSRI with it.

 

[Keif' Richards]

Hey @strawberry69

What you're experiencing is actually pretty normal with Buprenorphine if your tolerance is low. It is a powerful drug, but it's often not given its full credit, as their are other much more potent drugs available in most places. I would encourage you to check out a documentary called "Reindeer Spotting" (a play on words for Trainspotting). It blew my mind. These guys are up in the arctic circle and there is no Heroin there. What they do have is a ton of Subutex. Subutex was the drug of choice and that's what they were all addicted to and craving. They were making the comments "Oh if I had all the Subutex I could get, I would be happy forever", which is hilarious, because I know plenty of people for whom this was not true.

So yea, it's normal. I've experienced some pretty strong Euphoria from Buprenorphine in my really early days.

 

[DeathIndustrial88]

Yeah, when I first discovered buprenorphine in 2017ish, I some times preferred it to heroin.

Mostly because it was cheaper than heroin & lasted all day, so I felt "normal" for longer.
But it does definitely get you high if you have no-to-low tolerance.



What SSRI do you take OP?
Clonidine can potentiate the sedative effects.
And I noticed in my day, being on the SNRI effexor, that at the tail end of my effexor wearing off, if I dosed bupe, I'd get a little bit of a "buzz".

 

[not worth knowing]

With little tolerance, less is more with buprenorphine. If I'm not mistaken lower doses allow you to get more of the metabolite norbuprenorphine which is more euphoric than buprenorphine itself. I know I used to get pretty damn high off like a 0.2 mg once upon a time. In the beginning of my relationship to opioids I too preferred it to heroin. Its anti depressant properties are real too. Worse withdrawal than heroin though, terrible.

 

[strawberry69]

Yeah, when I first discovered buprenorphine in 2017ish, I some times preferred it to heroin.

Mostly because it was cheaper than heroin & lasted all day, so I felt "normal" for longer.
But it does definitely get you high if you have no-to-low tolerance.



What SSRI do you take OP?
Clonidine can potentiate the sedative effects.
And I noticed in my day, being on the SNRI effexor, that at the tail end of my effexor wearing off, if I dosed bupe, I'd get a little bit of a "buzz".

I take Sertraline 100mg, and yeah I noticed recently that the clonidine definitely potentiates the subs when I take them together. Took them before work the other day and found myself nodding at my desk.

 

[Eligiu]

I definitely found that during some of my bupe inductions when we had to guess my dose (mainly when I was using poppy seed tea as my tolerance was completely impossible to estimate with any accuracy) that for the first 5 days or so of the induction I would get a buzz and a nod. Sometimes the first day I took it I'd get knocked out cold or feel like I would be sick.

I'd either enjoy the nod for the last few days I could or if it was intolerable I'd request to reduce the dose by a bit and stabilise on a lower dose.

Bupe is actually as strong as fentanyl, don't forget. It just works differently. From memory the dose they would normally give someone in a hospital is actually 0.4mg the same as fentanyl. It's really powerful. There's a reason when you do a slow taper you drop down to 0.4 or lower if possible. Jumping off 2mg is madness and I would never ever put myself in that situation. No way.

You probably just have a low tolerance right now and the bupe knocked you for a six, last times you used it I would guess you were using much more heavily so it didn't effect you much.

I wouldn't be concerned at all.