I’ve been discouraged by the number of people who write to this blog indicating that they abuse Suboxone by snorting or injecting. I know that’s a small number of people, compared to the thousands that have used Suboxone to get their lives back, and who are in excellent recovery, but it still depresses me.
What should the addiction medicine community do? What should the government do, if anything? What about law enforcement?
In this country, most law enforcement people see abuse of Suboxone the same as any other street drug. For them, it’s usually black and white. If it’s not prescribed for you, or if you’re using it in a way that’s not prescribed, it’s a crime for which you should be prosecuted.
Harm reduction proponents see the situation wholly differently. Since Suboxone is usually safer than other illicit opioids (note I said safer, not safe), even when it’s misused, why not allow the illicit use? In fact, why not hand out Suboxone tablets to anyone proven to be an opioid addict? If the addict snorts or shoots Suboxone, at least he’s not shooting heroin, a much more dangerous drug. True, that person is susceptible to medical complications from injecting and snorting, but this would be true for any other opioid. And some studies indicate that most of the illicit Suboxone is bought by addicts either self-medicating in order to stay out of withdrawal, or giving the medication a try before making the financial commitment to go to a doctor’s office for a legitimate prescription.
In a purely scientific world, I would agree with the harm reductionists. But that’s not the world we live in. We should be sensitive and alert to political forces that would like to annihilate our present freedom to prescribe Suboxone from a doctor’s office. Doctors – and their patients – have to be good stewards of this freedom, by taking whatever measures are appropriate to keep Suboxone out of the hands of illicit users.
So what can doctors do to reduce Suboxone diversion?
- Tablet counts and film counts. When I get a new patient, I have in my monitoring agreement that I will occasionally call them to go to their pharmacy (Some patients drive up to forty minutes one way to see me, so it’s more convenient to go to their pharmacy than to my office. Most pharmacists are happy to help.) for medication counts. If the count is short, either the patient is taking more medication than prescribed, or diverting it. Decreased diversion is the drug manufacturer’s big selling point for the films, rather than the tablets. They say that since each box has a lot number, if a patient has sold or given away some of their films, they can’t just buy replacement films to replenish before their count, like can be done with tablets. The lot numbers have to match. I can see where in theory that can be true…but I can also think of some ways to easily get around that, which I won’t post here.
- Urine drug screens to make sure buprenorphine is present in the urine. Screening should be done anyway, to check for other drug use. Doctors doing urine drug screens should, of course, have buprenorphine on their test panel. In the past this was an expensive test, but not at present. My on-site test kits cost less than $10 when bought in bulk, and test for buprenorphine, methadone, opiates, oxycodone, THC, cocaine, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepines. (I have individual test cassettes for other drugs, when indicated.) Obviously, if there’s no buprenorphine in the urine, we have a problem.
- Check the prescription monitoring program in your state. If the patient is getting prescriptions for other opioids, like morphine or oxycodone, it’s possible the patient stops Suboxone and uses these opioids between doctor visits. The other possibility is that they sell these other opioids, also not an acceptable situation, since it fuels other addicts’ addictions.
What can patients do to help keep Suboxone away from illicit users?
- Don’t share your medication. Even if someone you care about is in withdrawal, help him to get care from a legitimate source. Don’t endanger him and yourself by sharing medication. And of course…don’t sell your medication. Duh.
- Make sure you keep your Suboxone in a lock box, or other safe place. Not only will this keep your medication away from children, but also from addicts looking for opioids. Many patients new to recovery haven’t yet cut off ties with all drug users, and other addict “friends” may be looking for medication.
- If you know of a Suboxone patient who’s selling medication, tell their doctor. You don’t have to call the police to get them into legal hot water, but you should do all you can to stop the illegal sale of any prescription medication. After all, a patient selling Suboxone is endangering your right to get convenient, office-based treatment.
- Family members: please call your loved one’s doctor if any part of their Suboxone prescription is being sold or given away to other people. Because of confidentiality, we may not even be able to confirm that your loved one is a patient, but we can always take information from you. We may do pill counts or other things to confirm what you are telling us, and then take action.
What are the possible consequences of continued diversion of Suboxone? Some authorities are talking about changing the DATA 2000 law. Others are clamoring for buprenorphine to be re-scheduled into a schedule II opioid, which would disqualify it under DATA 2000 for use in an office. It would still be available at an opioid treatment program. And many OTPs (opioid treatment programs) do now offer buprenorphine.
I advocate for continued availability of office-based buprenorphine treatment, but now I believe some patients should start at an OTP, and transfer to office-based program only if they do well. Some patients are so strongly addicted to other drugs that they don’t do well in office-based treatment.
I now work at a wonderful opioid treatment program that offers both buprenorphine and methadone upon admission. I’ve switched a few selected patients to my office-based practice. This means I see them and write a prescription for them to fill at a pharmacy, no longer chaining them to daily OTP dosing. I still see them at regular intervals, usually every one to two weeks. These patients can still contract with the OTP for individual counseling and drug testing. This allows the OTP to have a wider variety of treatment options for their patients, gives me a stable patient, and gives patients who are doing well more freedom and treatment at a lower cost. Win, win, win.
I hope more OTPs will begin to offer buprenorphine as a real option to methadone, so that patients who don’t do well in office-based programs can still be on buprenorphine. And I hope they direct the stable patients to office-based programs.
