Everyone who read all my newsletters remembers my beginning drama with detoxing. I went through withdrawals because of years of being on a drug called Suboxone (this was my 2nd time going withdrawals). Per BOP formulary Suboxone is offered at their facilities. The drug is actually a fantastic drug that helps lots of people. The opiate crisis is out of control and it helps not only with pain but it blocks the opiate high.
Well one of the first FRUSTRATING things you learn is although the facilities are supposed to follow BOP policy these facilities do what they want to do. Leavenworth camp does whatever is best for Leavenworth staff. Leavenworth staff didn’t want to administer Suboxone even though they have it and the BOP tells them they are supposed to. The problem is It wasn’t easy to give the drug to inmates (keep in mind there are 2 inmates out of 300 who take it per a doctors prescription….and one of them went to the SHU for Meth….so it was just ME). By NOT easy I mean it was labor intensive for staff (inmates had to sit on their hands for 30 minutes to make sure they didn’t fake taking it). Staff claimed someone abused it at Leavenworth (which is probably true, Suboxone is huge in prisons….some people put it on their eyeballs for a crazy high).
I won’t bang on Leavenworth medical too much (it’s really just a nurse). She was super sweet and I think she tried her best to help us.
So again, I was under the impression I could keep taking Suboxone when I got to Leavenworth otherwise for the over 2 years I was on Pretrial I would have tapered off it safely rather than go through a brutal detox. But again that was back when I thought the BOP operated under some semblance of logic & consistency (I mean I didn’t think they would mess around with schedule 3 drugs…drugs that you can have dangerous effects if not taken properly).
So no more Suboxone (which you take daily)…. Leavenworth said no. Hello alternative drug Vivotrol. Vivotrol is a once a month shot that is easy to administer and can’t be abused, makes sense that the camp would want you to take that…it’s easier and little work comparably. So my whole god awful detox situation could have been avoided if the BOP would have done what it stated. So now I’m on vivotrol which I had to detox from Suboxone to get on. Make sense?
So long story short i am obviously terrified of ever detoxing again on anything. I’m really only on one med…which is vivotrol…..so when I was leaving I asked Leavenworth medical will I still be on vivotrol or will I have issues getting it moving forward? I don’t want to detox again, They told me with 100% certainty they will offer vivotrol at my halfway house. Matter of fact they acted offended I even asked. “That would be dangerous,” they stated. SO what do you think happened when I got to the halfway house? Do you think they offer vivotrol? Of course not …. They do not have anyone that could administer a shot. They never even heard of it. So what do they want to do? They wanna put me back on Suboxone. The medication that I severely detoxed from they want to put me back on. I said no….but this is frigggin hilarious. Luckily the withdrawal from vivotrol is minor comparably … im told.
But let’s recap that insanity. Leavenworth wouldn’t let me take Suboxone because of people abusing it (they didn’t care how miserable detoxing was) ….they put me on the alternative vivotrol. Fresno won’t administer vivotrol so they want to put me back on Suboxone. CRAZY!!!
