G'day all its John from Australia

G'day I have noticed a lot of members are on higher doses than we are allowed. The maximum we can have is 150mg which sux...I used Heroin from the age of 13 till 25 constantly and then went back on done at 150mgs which was not enough and still is not enough 20 years later. What is the maximum dose you are able to go on in the U.S. How many take away doses are you able to get? In South Australia we get our dose dispensed at a pharmacy that will take you on ( not many ) for usually $20 a week. In Sydney if you are dispensed at at private clinic you can be charged $11 per day. Do you get charged over there? I hope the bean counters leave us to get on with our lives and good luck to all out there! John

hi john,
Im in california and I dont think there is a set dose where they wont go past, everyone is diffrent, I was up to 200mgs, I went down slowly to 125mgs and thats where Ive stayed. Its an individual thing. Its where you fel comfortable. I have 6 take homes and that took me a few years to get, you have to have clean uas in a row, If you get a dirty they take ur take homes away. sounds like its alittle tough down there, to even get on methadone.
Good luck to you John

Hi John.
In the US they are TECHNICALLY not suppose to have a dose limit anymore. It use to be 120mgs but they put a stop to that several years ago. However, it is still done even though it is against Federal Regulations. Clinics will use other methods to keep from going over 120mg. They will make you have a peak and trough test before going over 120mg and then interpret the test however they wish. Either saying you are overmedicated and not giving you the increase or lord forbid (in my case) they used it to say I was OVER medicated and actually DECREASED my dose. Loooong story but even after I provided them info showing they were reading the results wrong, they still insisted I couldn't have an increase. I moved to a new clinic where I was allowed the increase. So again, technically there is suppose to be no dose limit but they find ways around it.

There are some ppl on doses over 300mgs and some do fine on as little as 10-20mgs a day. You will also find that the higher dose you are on, the harder it will be to find a clinic that will accept you if you have to transfer.

As for how many take homes you can have, Fed Regs say you can have as many as 28 days worth of takeouts but each state and then also each clinic can have their own rules about that. I live in Louisiana and they will only allow you a maximum of 2 weeks worth of takeout EVER, but I go to a clinic across the state line in Tx and I can have 27 days worth of takeouts.

I have heard of some clinics who only allow a week worth of takeouts so it really depends on the state rules and then the clinic rules.

On average we pay $11-15 A DAY for private clinic. We are not allowed to get methadone from a pharmacist if we are using it for opiate addiction here in the US. Now if you can find a pain management doctor here who will prescribe it to you for pain you can get it from a pharmacy and it is VERY CHEAP medication here.

I know for a fact because a doc did help me out when I originally tried to get help for my opiate addiction and prescribed it to me for a short time. I was taking 60mg a day at the time and I could get a MONTHS worth of methadone for $18 and the doc charged $65 so for less that $100 bucks a month. BIG difference in the private clinics we have to go to.

Bad thing is that the ones who are getting it from pain mgt docs are the ones who are selling thier methadone so the majority of diverted methadone is from the pain mgt patient and not a methadone clinic pt but we are the ones taking the blame for it not them.

That's another loooong story!

Anyway, thanks for sharing with us and I hope we will see you around the forum in the future