Quick and dirty facts on heroin detox and suboxone?

[Paradisel]

My girlfriend has been an IV heroin user for since she was 13 or so. 12 years of use. She recently served 80 days in jail and almost immediately relapsed for 2 days upon getting out, but she stuck to methadone rather than dope. Week later another night of relapse, and now she is coming off a full week. This time of course she has dope sickness. I have managed to obtain suboxone to ease this.

I know nothing about how to help handle this situation. I have read other threads and most say avoid going over two weeks on sub or you will just be addicted to it. What should be a comfortable time table? I was thinking 5-7 days up to maybe 10?

At the moment she has no plans to stay entirely clean, simply get off the physical addiction and get high "occasionally." I'm not arguing not because I wish to enable, but because I don't want to add pressure to an already tense situation. I will deal with the occasionally as it comes up, hopefully with suboxones. I understand the fine line I am walking here but a confrontation over drug use while she is actively trying to get clean, even if temporarily, will lead to her running off again and running off is actually worse than her addiction because in addition to being an addict she has been hooking since 15. She's beaten on average of once every three days and situations where the trick attempts to kill her happen around once a year. The needle she can control killing her (though she has on a great number of occasions wished for an OD that she is not revived from.) She has been accepted to and is on the waiting list for a facility that will help her deal with her mental health issues as well as addictions but that is still 1-3 months off, so until that time I need to help deal with the situation as much as she allows. In addition I am quite sure that she will not be instantly cured upon admission, I expect the first year or more will be bumpy.

So here is my question, how long should I keep her on the suboxone for the initial detox and will suboxone curb her occasional desires to get high? Is methadone an acceptable safer substitute? The problem is she shoots the methadone, and I frankly would prefer to keep her off the needle as much as possible. What about Oxy or some other pill? Or krantom? Something that she can use to curb the urge but isn't as dangerous as the needle. Plus the longer she's away from the needle the less the desire to use it.

Essentially I am trying to minimize damage for now. I was an addict in my teenage years, though only pot, lsd, and supposedly pcp (we think it was ether, we smoked it, it made us retarded) nothing this heavy but I still remember very vividly what turned me off of rehabilitation efforts and what worked. Also my hope is by minimizing the damage, over time, it will strengthen her desire and efforts to get clean.

We tried K2 when she first got out and it was working until she got to the point she was smoking it all the time.


I'm sure some will want to lecture, and have at it, but I'm not stupid and I'm not ignorant. I'm not trying to enable, I am trying to minimize her outright rejection of my help and damage from using again, in particular I want to keep her off the streets because that ultimately is not only more dangerous than her addiction, but leads to increasing her self loathing which in turn leads to her wanting to get high and forget everything. I just need some advice for these ends. I know you can't control addiction, but you can lessen the blows.

Thank you in advance.

[Paradisel]

Also, since I wasn't clear, the last relapse, the week long was with dope not methadone.

[ARTIST658]

Suboxone is intended for those wanting to be clean. It is a very strong opiate, and detoxing off it is difficult, if not done properly. There is a specific procedure for inducting (starting) subs, how to take them and when, and how to taper off. We are not here to provide advice for how to use suboxone in conjunction with using other opiates. I don't even understand what purpose you expect suboxone to serve, if she continues to turn to heroin or methadone.

There are risks to what you're suggesting, and you need to pay attention to them: Suboxone blocks the effectiveness of other opiates, so she will want to take more and more of the heroin, to get high. That is a situation of very high risk of potential overdose.

What you are doing is enabling, plain and simple. Enabling sounds so innocent - but, in truth, it can be lethal. You are helping her to stay sick, helping her to kill herself, and calling it "love."

Truth be told, that is because you want to be in her life - and the only way to be a part of an addict's life is to be a part of her disease. You need to examine your motives.