Author: travispnorton

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:37 am

In 2001 I was among the first wave of buprenorphine patients in Minneapolis and my first doctor (the first Suboxone prescribing Dr. in Minnesota, actually!) He required me to bring my pills in each month for a count and would give me UA’s once monthly for sure and would on occasion call me in for a ‘surprise UA.’ I’m sure some doctors still operate like this today, obviously yours does; thankfully my current doc does not! In asking him what to expect of his practice when I sought him out a couple years ago, I asked him how often I would be tested (because I was concerned about the cost) and he said never. He subscribes to my philosophy that as inaccurate and easy to forge in whatever way one wants UA’s are that there is more or less no real reason to give them other than procedure for the sake of procedure. Also, for someone to tell you that you tested positive for Dilaudid specifically seems fishy unless it was a blood test as I’d be really surprised if Dilaudid was part of an office based panel test. Typically as far as opiates go there is one panel for opiates (which includes morphine, heroin, codeine, hydromorphone, hydrocodone), one specifically for methadone/propoxyphene and one specifically for oxycodone. Unless your doctors office has paid a lot of money for many, many panel tests with each opioid listed separately this accusation seems fishy to me.

As far as marijuana, I can see both sides of the argument. Yes, MJ is illegal so if your doctor is the type of person who will dismiss someone for this type of behavior, then, well, salud! I’d find a different doctor, personally. I don’t use marijuana but I know it certainly doesn’t cause the devastation that almost every other drug is capable of (including alcohol.) In a ‘traditional’ treatment setting it is one thing to have a hard-stance about marijuana, but in the case of buprenorphine maintenance it does not really make sense to discharge an opioid addict from an opoid replacement medication that is effectively keeping them off of opioids because they used a non-lethal drug that really isn’t being treated with the buprenorphine.

Good luck in hopefully finding a new Dr.!
Travis