methadone

[Lainie]

i was in the chemist this morning after a doc apt to collect some amoxicillin. i had to wait around 15 mins for my prescription. during that time 4 males all came in for their "methadone - getting served right away at the wee special bit at the top of the pharmacy.

now we are always hearing in the news etc how much people who are overweight and how much smokers cost the nhs but just exactly how much does this cost and is this treatment effective?

[manster]

and i bet the chemist knew them all by name and had a little chat with them !!!!

[bvilleuk]

i was in the chemist this morning after a doc apt to collect some amoxicillin. i had to wait around 15 mins for my prescription. during that time 4 males all came in for their "methadone - getting served right away at the wee special bit at the top of the pharmacy.

now we are always hearing in the news etc how much people who are overweight and how much smokers cost the nhs but just exactly how much does this cost and is this treatment effective?

It's supposed to "wean" them off Cocaine....

Means their drugs are supplied by the Tax Payers [NHS] so they don't have to go out mugging or burgling to raise the money for their habit.......

[The Tax Payers end up paying either way]

[Lainie]

yeah i know what its for etc but whats the cost of it. ie how much does a dose of methadone cost the nhs. ive just read an article in the sun newspaper saying how much people with drug problems cost the nhs in scotland a year. i was furious that they got served straight away!!

[bvilleuk]

i was furious that they got served straight away!!

Bloody infuriating -- had this happen to me as well -- They got served straight away -- I had to queue and at the time was the only one in the Queue that had to pay.... all the others were exempt for some reason or another -- but because I was working and not claiming any Benefits they relieved me of ?18+

What an incentive to work..........

[Lainie]

prepay your prescriptions yearly. i did that for years. luckily prescription prices in scotland are being phased out.

[caveman_nige]

i think they server them straightaway to stop them kicking off and so they can get em out of the chemist asap... i understand that it is a herion subsitute and not cocaine addicts though..

[wdowczyk]

i think they server them straightaway to stop them kicking off and so they can get em out of the chemist asap... i understand that it is a herion subsitute and not cocaine addicts though..

i think your right there m8 but it does my t.ts in. last week i went into my local chemist in blantyre to collect my wifes prescription,i met my gran who had been standing in the queue for 15 mins and was feeling a bit unwell due to the heat in the place..at the opposite side of the chemist shop in there own little custom built seated area was 4or 5 low life ****ed up junkies getting the medication...its a strange place we live in now that pensioners,mothers to be and anybody else whos felling unwell have to stand and wait while these junkies waltz in and grab a comfy seat and get served right away

[alec]

England a country where they:
Pay you to loose weight, pay you to have as many kids as you want,pay you to take drugs, and pay you to cheat the system. A normal taxpayer is treated as a paying mug.
It is any wonder they are queuing in France to get here.

[Lyrrad]

i think they server them straightaway to stop them kicking off and so they can get em out of the chemist asap... i understand that it is a herion subsitute and not cocaine addicts though..

Methadone is a herion substitute. The bit they don't like to tell you about is that it is actually more addtictive than heroin itself. Unless there is a program to actually stop these people from taking either of the 2 substances it is IMHO a complete waste of time. The only advantage Methadone has is that in general it is taken orally rather than injecting so the reduced risk of needle sharing. 'Cold turkey' until these people are clean is the cheapest, most effective method but 'not PC 'for this country. Their rights are too important.

[chroma]

i was in the chemist this morning after a doc apt to collect some amoxicillin. i had to wait around 15 mins for my prescription. during that time 4 males all came in for their "methadone - getting served right away at the wee special bit at the top of the pharmacy.

now we are always hearing in the news etc how much people who are overweight and how much smokers cost the nhs but just exactly how much does this cost and is this treatment effective?

Short Story: No significant to a severely detrimental effect.
Costs a shitload.

Methadone is a topic i know a whole lot about, more than most junkies (because ive never touched the stuff and been clearheaded throughout the process)
I dated a girl several years ago who was an "ex" heroin addict. She was prescribed 42 5mg tablets of Diazepam and 1750ml of Methadone Hydrochloride weekly... it was my job to sort it into daily doses and keep it securely locked away the rest of the time. Simply bottle 250ml a day and dispense 6 yellows throughout the day.

Incidentaly i used to talk to her before we dated in the mental ward and we grew friendly from there (i was completely unaware of the situation until a few weeks after she got out of rehab, thinking she was just in visiting someone in there the same as i was)

Methadone is actualy more addictive than heroin in terms of side effects from going cold turkey, on heroin youve got 3-5 days of excruciating pain, hot and cold sweats, tremor, vomiting diarrhea and halucinations to contend with before youve sweated the shite out of your system.

On Methadone the effects are slightly less pronounced, say slamming your head in a car door instead of your cock on the pain scale, they do however last for WEEKS instead of a few days.
I found this out because we had a massive argument (relating to me watering the doses down and drug paranoia in general) and i stupidly flushed the lot thinking i was proving some kind of point, this as it turns out wound up being more torture than just proving a point.
The screams over that move where much akin to a cat being tied to a tree and set on fire, junkies can make ungodly shrieks when drugs are involved...
The week that followed was not the most pleasant in my life and im certain it was probably the worst of hers.

Anyway, the stuff is lethal, 30ml is enough to take a todler for a trip to the mortician, she was on 250ml of this shit (and as i found out much later Heroin top ups too) I mean comming straight off vallium wasnt a big deal, a few days of the dt's and twitches but the meth? oh shit was i completely unprepared for that.

So in essence its harder to wean someone off of it than just plain smack, not fun to be around or watch.
The average dose costs the uk tax payer ?5.00 roughly (this is daily) and there are an estimated 350,000 people on the gear, so some simple math tells me that the uk tax payer is getting gouged to the tune of ?1,750,000 per day or ?639,187,500 per year (365.25 days in a year to factor in leap years) just almost two thirds of a billion.

Couple this with the fact that no one wants to slam their head in a car door so everyone is highly reluctant to come off the stuff, ( i found my ex od'd on the couch, packed my shit as i phoned the ambulance and have no idea if shes alive or dead at this point with no real inclination to care)

We managed to get her down to 5ml a day and off the vallium entirely before the relapse, about a fortnight away from being pharmacuticaly clean (if not psychologicaly) her dad died and she saw fit to use that as ample excuse for the first relapse (which is understandable) i persavered through that hiccup and got te levels back down to sane levels before she relapsed again for no good reason and decided it was time for atlas to shrug.

In synopsis, its costing the taxpayer two thirds of a billion a year for methadone ALONE (meth is only part of the prescription, the couseling, and other associated drugs like benzos and ssri' will inflate the cost by a large factor)

It doesnt do any actual good.

And theres no such thing as an EX junkie (not a good dating pool to get involved with either)

[firestorm]

a good reason to have a seprate counter for methadone is that would you want some thieving smack head sat next to you for 15min trying to rob your mobile,handbag and anything they can get there dirty thieving hands on.Plus if he or she is in the chemist they would be knicking razer baldes ect of the chemist so he wants them in and out as quick as possible

[forntida]

Look at that wummin sittin there. That's the bugger that is always trying to get us on New Deal. There she is sitting like the rest of us waiting on her wee fix.

[bvilleuk]

chroma

An interesting story -- I admire your courage for being so brutally honest.

Makes me wonder how I would have handled it. Certainly given me food for thought.

I have two Relatives who are Alcoholics -- they don't need to go to a Chemist -- their drug is available very cheaply virtually everywhere 24 hours a day......

Addiction is a terrible thing -- there are no "ex" alcoholics either.

All the best

[thered]

i was in the chemist this morning after a doc apt to collect some amoxicillin. i had to wait around 15 mins for my prescription. during that time 4 males all came in for their "methadone - getting served right away at the wee special bit at the top of the pharmacy.

now we are always hearing in the news etc how much people who are overweight and how much smokers cost the nhs but just exactly how much does this cost and is this treatment effective?

it is sick the amont of money junkies get spent on them yet there are people dying of cancer who they will not fund treatment for

this country is a joke we even have places where you can get free heroine which have been run as trials accross the country and due to its success there is plans to open lots more free heroine centres at a cost of ?15,000 per patient

wonder where it comes from? apparantly almost 99% of heroin comes from afganistan and goes to the taliban who then use it to buy weapons to kill our troops in a place where we shoulg not be

btw why dont we just bomb all the opium fields and have done then bomb the government