Portioning Buprenorphine Dosages

[Laudaphun]

I was going to post this under buprenorphine experiences thread but I feel that for many people out there on buprenorphine maintanence, this either is or will be at some point in time a major issue. For instance, anyone that has tapered down knows that 2mg is not low enough to comfortably quit from. Many people get down to 1mg and have trouble coming off of that.

The point is, buprenorphine is a very powerful drug and in the United States we only have 2 dosage units available... 8mg and 2mg, and neither is scored. Also there is the issue of cost, especially if you don't have insurance, then you likely can't afford to be properly tapered off with 2mg pills as a pharmacy will charge you only a little bit less for a 2mg pill than an 8mg pill, therefore its WAY cheaper to just get the 8mg pills and try and portion them out.

But for whatever the reason being, many people on buprenorphine maintanence usually find at least the desire to be able to portion their 8s into halves or quarters... or maybe even their 2's into halves...

I've heard of many people who have asked their pharmacists about getting a quality pill cutter... Apparently pharmacies use very accurate pill cutters that are capable of very accurately breaking a pill into quarters or maybe smaller. SWIM tried crushing up his 8mg pills once and dividing them into 8 equal piles of powder so he could give himself 3mg doses that way without resorting to having to buy the 2mg pills.... This was a lot more work than SWIM liked to spend, especially when he'd roll out of bed already late for school and not have a pill already divided up.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has found any creative methods of portioning out an 8mg pill... or even a 2mg pill into accurate and smaller doses?
Honestly, the only logic I can see behind them only giving us 8mg pills and 2mg pills and keeping the price difference so disproportionate, is a strategic financial move on the pharmaceutical companies part. Has anyone had any luck with pill cutters that they would recommend?
Oddly enough the same manufacturer (or at least I'm very certain its the same manufacturer) that makes our U.S. pills markets a 0.2mg pill in Europe... but not here. LOL

[toe]

This is basically the one that certain lab rat I know was given by her veteranarian, who no longer needed it because the vet. happened to have a couple of spares. Said lab rat was given the device 7-8 years ago because it's hard to cut pills evenly without opposable thumbs. She still uses it.

The lab rat doesn't take any octagonal pills, though. That's what might be tricky with any pill cutter. SWIY should consult a pharmacist, since splitting pills is totally legal in most cases. That having been said, the lab rat is pretty confidant that this is one of the very highest quality such devices out there.

Reputation Comments on this post:

glad to see you got the image thing worked out. And welcome to d-f. You look like a valuable member.

[Ranke]

In swims experiance suboxone is usually very soft and easily broken/cut. For the split of the 8mg into two 4mg pieces swim uses his thumbs, anything smaller swim used a razor blade. If swiy didn't want to use this method they should be able to find a pill cutter that uses disposible razor blades at any well stocked pharmacy.