On the street, a single Suboxone strip sells for about $15, and cheaper in bulk.Īpproved for clinical use in October 2002 by the Food and Drug Administration, buprenorphine is generally prescribed as part of a treatment regimen with counseling and behavioral therapies, and the drug can be taken at home-unlike methadone, which has to be dispensed daily from a specially licensed clinic. Generic Subutex can cost up to $128 for 14 doses.
Generic Suboxone retails for up to $160 for fourteen 8 mg doses at pharmacies. Other brand names such as Subutex and Butrans contain only buprenorphine. The brand-name drug Suboxone combines buprenorphine with naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug, which cuts down the potential for misuse: the naloxone blocks the effects of the opioid if Suboxone is injected or snorted. For people who are already used to taking opioids, buprenorphine blunts the powerful cravings and pain of withdrawal that send people in addiction in search of stronger opioids.
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Like the full agonists, for people who aren't used to opioids, it can be used to achieve a pleasurable high-and it can cause respiratory depression, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.īecause buprenorphine is a partial agonist, though, the effects-and the risks of overdose-are much weaker. But it's a partial opioid agonist, not a full agonist, such as heroin or methadone, another addiction treatment drug. "It costs more to go to the doctor," she said.īuprenorphine is an opioid. But she has bought buprenorphine on the street a few times since, with the aim of getting off heroin.
"Ever since then, I've been back on dope," she said. For those without Medicaid or generous health insurance benefits, treatment itself is costly.Ĭynthia Kerbaugh, of Berlin, Camden County, said she had been doing well for years in a suboxone treatment program, until her insurance stopped covering the medication about a year ago. Yet entering treatment can still be difficult and daunting for some drug users. They've eliminated ID requirements and insurance pre-authorizations and even launched mobile treatment centers where doctors can prescribe buprenorphine to patients on the street.
With more than 1,000 people a year dying of overdoses in Philadelphia-the worst big-city opioid crisis in the nation-city and state officials have scrambled to help more people get into treatment programs. Rather, they're using it to protect themselves from overdoses, to get through the pain of withdrawal, or even to engineer their own do-it-yourself addiction treatment. As with so many prescription medications, there's a robust black market for it on the avenue.īut drug users, advocates, and researchers say that many people aren't buying buprenorphine to get high. They're referring to Suboxone, one of the brand names for the opioid-based addiction treatment medicine buprenorphine, prescribed by physicians and shown to produce more lasting recovery from opioid addiction than abstinence-based therapy.
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