Cinderella and Snow White Smuggle Suboxone

I’ll often joke with others who have histories of addiction over the ingenuity of addicts when it comes to finding or using drugs.  If that amount of creativity and work ethic were ever harnessed for legitimate reasons, the opportunities would be limitless!

I have similar thoughts when I read the story about several county inmates at a New Jersey jail, who smuggled Suboxone into jail disguised as watercolor paint on cartoon images!The story has a humorous side, of course– but after we stop laughing, we are all sobered by the memories of the living hell created by opioids, detox, and withdrawal.  I’ve met many, many people who went through detox in jail or prison, and I realize that being in such a state is no laughing matter.  I assume that the experience of withdrawal in prison is about as bad as things get;  an experience that will never be part of someone’s bucket list!
The story also reminds us that buprenorphine is a very potent opioid.  One tablet of Suboxone contains 8000 micrograms of buprenorphine– enough to provide about 100 ‘hits’ of 80 micrograms each, which would have significant effects in people not tolerant to opioids. The illicit use of tiny doses of Suboxone–yet significant doses of buprenorphine– has become the most troublesome avenue for diversion of buprenorphine. This diversion is one reason for keeping prescribed doses to only the amount necessary to block receptors– which in the vast majority of people is 16 mg or less.I just had a thought on a different topic… do you think we will ever get to the point of seeing addiction as a disease, where people who are sick, depressed, and dehydrated from withdrawal, in prison, would be treated in a way that reduces their misery?Now THAT’S funny!  Sort of…