Interview With a Methadone Addict Part II
A few weeks ago, I posted an interview here with a man who was on methadone maintenance. It garnered quite a few responses, and so he asked me to follow up and let you know what’s happening with him. To preserve his anonymity, I’ll call him Smith.
On April 6, Smith was arrested for a parole violation. Because the jails are overcrowded, they quickly sent him to San Quentin where they do not supply inmates with methadone for any reason. Smith is on methadone for pain management and 110 milligrams in liquid form for drug addiction maintenance. For the third time in six months, he was forced into a cold turkey detox off of methadone. The result was the same this time as it was the last two times: misery. He sent me a letter:
Hi, Valeria. I’m not doing good. What they’re doing has to be unprofessional if not unethical. I’ve had to be taken to emergency five times now and every time they tell me they don’t have what I need but, “Here’s a little of this or a little of that.” Now it’s MS Contin two times a day but at first it was Motrin, naproxen, a non-narcotic shot in the hip that didn’t do anything.
I don’t want to scare you or worry you anymore than you probably already are, but I think it’s important for you to know for your blog. The morphine is helping with the twitching and sweating, nausea, etc and my eye doesn’t hurt but I’m still really dizzy and I can’t sleep. Methadone is a f**king powerful drug, man. Even morphine can’t touch it. I’m delirious. I think this is day 9 and it’s just climbing. Every nerve in my skin feels like it has a low voltage electric shock going through it. I can’t hold down any food or water and I am constantly covered with slick, oily, cold sweat. It’s getting unbearable and still, still I can’t imagine when this will be over. I am miserable. When I get over this, I will have to reevaluate my whole pain management system. I can’t go back on methadone, man. This is too high a price.
So there you have it. And for the record, Smith’s violation is not drug related. He was clean when they picked him up, and he is now at the end of his third week of methadone detox. As of the 25th, he still hadn’t slept, and he’s lost 20 pounds.
If you are addicted to any opiate drug in any form for any reason then you are at risk of experiencing a cold turkey opiate detox. You never know what is going to happen. You could lose your insurance, your pill bottle, lose your job and run out of money to pay for the insurance or the medication. You could go on vacation and forget your meds and be unable to fill the prescription. Anything can happen. Prepare yourself.
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May 1st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Ouch! That is terrible, I cant believe they would give him Morphine, but not “methadone for any reason”. It seems like they would want people to be on methadone so that they dont turn to harder, and more readily available opiates in prison such as Heroin, and OxyContin, On the plus side it looks like he will be able to be off of methadone when he leaves prison, and seek another alternative.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I know. It doesn’t make sense. But COs and prison medical staff are hardly known for their compassion for drug addicts. I guess that’s a trait they share with most of the population. But if there is an up side to this then it’s the fact that he is getting some medical attention and will be given access to other resources that otherwise wouldn’t be available to him thanks to the prison system’s “duty to protect.” We’ll see. It’s a struggle that so many go through and just never seems to end.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:30 am
The prison system enjoys the pain and suffering it inflicts on addicts by making them go cold turkey. It’s wrong. Prisoners who are on methadone maintenance should continue while confined. This all serves no purpose at all; it’s just torture.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
It certainly feels like that sometimes. I have no idea why they do what they do, and it hurts me to hear about people suffering like this. It’s medically dangerous and irresponsible, in my opinion, and just sets people up for failure, which is the opposite of rehabilitation. But who do we complain to? Who do we take this up with? I don’t even know where to begin.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It sounds just like xanax detox when you go cold turkey. I feel for you and I pray that you never have to go through that again. Does anyone know of a detox treatment off of xanax other than taking valium and then being addicted to them?
November 18th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
And the saddest thing of all is that this man’s chances of overdosing and DYING will increase expotentially just because of his prison stay! ALL THIS SUFFERING FOR WHAT? Because he had a chain on his wallet and a cop didn’t like him!