 So listen, although I am here presenting facts and scientific data about the medication suboxone for getting off of opioids, by no means am I here to scare you away from suboxone. If you are somebody who is struggling with an opioid addiction or know somebody who is struggling with an opioid addiction, in 100% of cases, I recommend everybody, everybody try suboxone for a short term taper to help with the withdrawals and begin your recovery journey. The issue is, there's a lot of misinformation going on out there about long term suboxone maintenance and that's exactly what this video is about. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, typically what I like to do is some social commentary looking at the YouTube community or pop culture, whatever it is, and try to see what lessons we can learn from them. But I'm also big on mental health as well as addiction recovery. So I make it all sorts of different videos. So anyways, if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. Something else a ton of you have been tweeting at me, DMing me and things like that with your questions. And I try to provide resources where I can. So make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul. But anyways, before I get started, before I get started, we should talk about what makes me, what makes Chris Boutet qualified to talk on this subject? Well, it's a few things. One of them is next month I will be celebrating seven years clean from opioids as well as alcohol. But from all mind altering substances, I haven't had a drink or a drug in seven years. Okay, my next qualification is I was working at an accredited drug and alcohol treatment center for three years. All right, I was doing groups and meeting with individuals one on one for three years. During my time there, I worked with literally thousands of drug addicts and alcoholics. And that's got to count for something because they were not keeping me there for my good looks. You know what I'm saying? Next, I am months away from getting my certified alcohol and drug counselor license. All right. So it's important to talk about what kind of qualifications a person has when speaking on this subject. Because like I said, there's a lot of misinformation going on out there over on YouTube. So I would challenge you when you're getting this information, ask the person what their qualifications are, ask them what their clean time is, ask them if they've ever actually worked in the field, or if they are currently have or are pursuing a degree in this field. First, the question is, what is suboxone? Okay, so suboxone, the actual medication is called buprenorphine. And this comes from the National Alliance of Advocates for buprenorphine treatment. All right, buprenorphine is a semi synthetic opioid. All right. And buprenorphine is an opioid partial agonist. This means that although buprenorphine is an opioid, and thus can produce typical opioid effects and side effects such as euphoria and respiratory depression, its maximum effects are less than those of full agonists like heroin and methadone. So what the hell does that mean? All right, there is misinformation going on out there that suboxone is not addictive. It is. It is a partial opioid. The ceiling is just different. It will not get you as high as something like heroin, methadone, or prescription opioids that you would get from a doctor like Percocet, Lortaz, morphine, things like that. But it is a partial opioid. So for anybody out there who is saying that suboxone is not addictive, if anybody is on a long term taper, I want you to ask them one question. Why don't you quit? Why don't you quit? The answer is they cannot because they have become physically and psychologically dependent to the medication. Not only does it produce an effective euphoria, but their body and mind is dependent on it. So if they stop taking it, they will begin to experience withdrawals because they are addicted. Now, when I made my first video about suboxone, I had somebody reach out to me. Okay, this is somebody who I'm going to leave anonymous for this video, but you'll see her DMs up here on the screen. You can pause and read them if you want. But just to summarize it, they thanked me for this. And here's why. Because when they got clean off of heroin, their doctor did not tell them the entire truth about suboxone. Okay. So they decided to keep her on suboxone. And now she wants to get off, but she's definitely afraid because she is dependent on this drug. So I asked her, I said, okay, well, is your insurance covering it and all that. And here's what she told me. She told me she has to go see your doctor every single month. This is with insurance. Mind you, she is paying $170 per visit and $90 for the medication. All right. That is almost $300 per month. So if she ever loses insurance or doesn't have the money to pay for these things and she's been taking suboxone for years, she is okay. But like I told her, and I would tell anybody else who's been on the long term, I've met people who have been on Suboxone for years and they've developed their dependence, but they got off of it. Okay. Yes, withdrawal sucks. Withdrawal is brutal, but you can get off of it. All right. This is one of the reasons why I speak out against long term suboxone use because you become dependent to a new substance. You become addicted to a new substance. So let's play this out. Let's say she loses her health insurance. She can no longer afford the doctor visits or the suboxone because those prices are going to go up without insurance. All right. Then the withdrawal kicks in. And without access to suboxone, you know what you do have access to that's a lot cheaper? Hell when. Okay. So this is why I do not recommend a long term suboxone maintenance program because it puts you in a very tricky situation. When people are first getting clean from opioids, I suggest a short term taper to deal with withdrawal. The treatment center that I was working at that was accredited. All right. They don't just accredit any facilities. They have to meet certain standards and guidelines. We did a short term suboxone taper. It was anywhere from one to two weeks. All right. So the men and women who came through our treatment centers, they were on there for one to two weeks. All right. Now some of the other misinformation that's going on out there is that there are extremely high success rates for people who are on long term suboxone maintenance. All right. So what I'm showing you on the screen right now is a study from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. They compared short term one week suboxone tapers to three months. Okay. And here's what they said. The findings at the end of the taper, 44% of the seven day taper group provided opioid free urine specimens compared to 30% of the 28 day taper group. There were no differences at the one month and three month follow ups. The conclusion was for individuals terminating buprenorphine pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence, there appears to be no advantage in prolonging their duration of taper. All right. So let me summarize that again for you. There is no evidence that a long term taper or a long term maintenance like being on it for years increases your chances of staying clean. Okay. So anybody who was telling you that they do not have the science to back that up. So as a recovering opioid addict, I do not recommend it because I do not want to be dependent on a new medication where if I run out of that medication or do not have access to that medication, I am screwed. Okay. So I feel that it's very dangerous to encourage people to be honest for such a long period of time. We do not know what tomorrow holds. All right. Like for example, when I was working at that treatment center, they started downsizing like crazy and my position was eliminated. So I lost my health insurance. If I was still on Suboxone, like if I was somebody who was on Suboxone for years, I would have been screwed. So again, against the argument that Suboxone is not addictive, this is pulled from an article from Kaiser health news. All right. Buprenorphine is one of just three federally approved medications to treat opioid addiction. It's an opioid itself. So some people misuse it. They snort or inject the medication and patients who have prescriptions for buprenorphine sometimes sell or give it away, which is known as diversion. Some policymakers and officials point to diversion as a reason to further increase regulations. Providers already need to be certified to prescribe it. And there's a cap on the number of patients they can treat with the drug. So that's right. That's right. Like addiction is tricky. It is very difficult to get clean and stay clean. So one of the risks that I would worry about being on a long-term Suboxone maintenance program is the abuse. Like this says, the drug can be snorted or injected to get high. All right. So one day, one day, somebody could wake up. All right. Months down the line, years down the line, and just pop more than they should. Okay. And get high off it. Now it does have a ceiling, but the same article talks about how you can overdose on it. Not only does this article talk about it and all the articles will be linked down below, but this right here, this is a New York Times article that was run talking about the overdose deaths related to Suboxone. All right. So again, again, I am not trying to scare anybody away from doing a Suboxone taper if they are trying to get off of opioids, but it is important to know the risk involved with long-term Suboxone maintenance. All right. Like many people are out there saying how it saves lives and everything like that, but it also puts you in a very tricky situation because you become dependent on it. And if you run out, you have a higher chance of going back out there and finding heroin or other drugs to get you high. All right. I am so grateful for my recovery because I was telling my girlfriend, Tristan, I feel like the genie in Aladdin, like when the cuffs just break off, like I am truly free. I don't have to worry about a damn thing because I am no longer physically or psychologically dependent on any substance at all. So if you are getting off of opioids, talk to your doctor, talk to your physician, talk to your detox, whatever it is about a short-term Suboxone taper. All right. But anyways, let me know your experience with Suboxone down in the comments below. Let's talk about it. Have you been on it for a long time? Do you know anybody who has? Do you know anybody who's scared to get off of it? Do you want me to do videos about how to deal with Suboxone withdrawal? Let me know down in the comments below. All right. But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And if you'd like to support what I'm doing here and get involved in our monthly Q&A and some access to some other perks and benefits, like getting your name in the credits right here, click or tap on that Patreon icon right there. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.