Switching from one opioid to another - does your body prefer a specific drug?

[mickeyaye6989 (OP)]

I'm currently on a vacation and didn't want to fly with a bunch of H, so I got a bunch of 50mg Kadians to keep me going while I'm away from home. Generally I pretty much stick strictly to heroin, but I generally keep a few MS Contins around in case my dealer doesn't pick up when I need to cop. I've never had a problem before, but this time I'm noticing that the morphine doesn't seem to make me feel quite as perfect as the H, regardless of dose. I can shoot enough to get slight pins and needles, but it still leaves me with that uncomfortable scratchy feeling where even a small scrape hurts like a knife. I'm totally fine otherwise - no yawns or runny nose/eyes, haven't shit in 2 days, and otherwise feel totally well, but the morph just doesn't seem to cut it like the H did. I'm wondering if my body somehow has a preference for heroin, or if the morph just doesn't hit my receptors in an equivalent manner (I mean I know it's a different drug, but generally opioids all keep me well, no matter what type). It seems that even if I do much more than enough to get me high, I still can't shake this scratchy feeling.

Has anyone else noticed that switching from one opiate to another leaves them with reduced/increased efficacy, even if you know the amount is equivalent with regards to strength/dose?

[Dopeless Hopefiend]

For me H was always in a league by itself. When I had a habit none of the pharmaceutical opis were fully satisfying. I can remember being in the hospital & getting 2 of the 8mg hydromorphone pills every three hours. Even if I cooked them up & shot them into my picc line it wasn't the same.
I think the closest thing for me was the OG oxycontins. Those were pretty great. Still not as good as H though. The only one I've never tried is oxymorphone, but I've done just about everything else.

[Chip]

I'd quite often use M when I wanted a break from Methadone. The ER version always took an hour to even start working (oral) but I always felt better (normal) on it.

Occasionally I would use Heroin (feeling the best !) but it just pushed my tolerance up and then I'd suffer feeling lousy and this would linger until I got my dose put up and then I'd suffer again with the increase of side-effects from the 'done.

That's the shirty part, not knowing where I am with my dose plus my tolerance ended up climbing rapidly - a symptom of being too long in the game.

I need to feel stability, that's why I'm desperate to be back to opiate free.

I'd still prefer oral morphine over Methadone but it was never an option.

[Anti-hero]

Heroin is definitely my DOC
I can switch between
Most opiates
Just to keep from being sick
But nothing beats
Good old fashioned
HEROIN

[mickeyaye6989 (OP)]

Totally agree that H is my DOC by far, but does anyone else seem to experience WD's when switching drugs even if you know your dose is equivalent to your typical H dose? I think some of my problem is that I didn't realize how much dope I was doing, but I still don't feel totally peachy like I would with a small shot of H. Gotta love the double edged sword of addiction....

[Z]

I find that the first shot of an opiate that I haven't done in a while is usually stronger then it should be compared to my tolerance.  It's almost like something new just hits differently, or it shakes things up enough that it has a more pronounced effect.  Maybe it's just that I'm so used to the subtle differences that having a new type of high feels so different and strong. 


What usually happens is that after more then a day I start to feel like it isn't usually hitting the spot all the way.  Maybe it's psychological, or maybe there is truly something missing.  It's very pronounced with my methadone.  I have gone off it for a week before, and I feel progressively worse as the time goes on until I hop back onto my normal dose.  The best way I've found is to take a small dose of methadone and combine it with whatever the other drug that I have is.  Luckily I manage my medication much better than I used to, and I don't find myself in the position of having to make up for a week's worth of take homes that I no longer have since I sold them or took them.  It is a long time that I haven't found myself in that position, and I definitely don't want to go back to it.


Different opiates do fit into our receptors differently, and some of them have other components then just the opiate.  Methadone is a good example of that.  There is a lot of NMDA activity with methadone, and it binds to other receptors then what are the traditional opiate receptors.  There is evidence to show that this could attenuate the medication to an extent, have an impact on tolerance, and likely becomes another thing that our bodies need to function.  Different opiates might have different effects, and it might even be in ways that we don't even understand with our modern medicine.


Does anyone else find that as time goes on a drug change becomes less satisfying?  Methadone has a long half life, so with heroin the scale would be shortened a lot.  Instead of a week it might be a day for a relative example.

[Wildcat]

Your genetic make up may not contain the necessary enzymes to metabolize some drugs;

I cannot take methadone because the gene I carry doesn't have the correct enzyme to metabolize it normally; this is true for everybody for a whole bunch of medications not just opiates.  SO it would be dangerous for me to take methadone; because I don't get the relief, I would want to take more, and more, and die of an od as a result.

[Lolleedee]

@Wildcat Could you explain a little bit more about why you can't metabolize methadone? What exactly is your body missing? How did you find out that you had this issue with methadone?

I'm sorry if that's too personal a question, but I'm very interested in the medical side of how we metabolize things.

[Z]

I know that some people have two recessive copies of the cyp2d6 gene that is responsible for metabolising many drugs like codeine.  I know that it has an impact on the rate of metabolism of methadone, but I didnt realize that it lead to some people not being able to metabolize methadone at all.   When you drink white grapefruit juice to potentiate codeine or methadone you are effecting the cyp2d6 gene. 

Im interested now.  Does methadone have no effect at all or is it just a reduced effect? That really sucks.  Methadone has been a real lifesaver for me, and not having that option would make it so much more difficult. 

[Dog Food]

When i was in detox last there was a guy there that had an allergy wristband on for codeine/morphine, but was there for iv heroin.  I didnt think that really made much sense as h is metabolized into those and im sure street dope has morphine still in it too.   

[mickeyaye6989 (OP)]

Codiene allergies are actually quite common, and definitely do not mean that all opiates/opioids will affect you similarly. Codine allergies are codeine specific, so people with them can generally take oxyocodne or hydrocodone, or some similar opioid and be totally fine. Moreover, I actually make it a point to mention to all of my doctors that I have a codeine allergy so that they won't give me weak ass T3's or some similar bulltshit. Example: recently broke a bone in my foot and went to see my doc. He was about to write a me a script for T3's but I said I had an allergy to codeine. I then mentioned that because of my Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), I can't take paracetamol or ibuprofen. He was about to write a script for Percs, but as those have paracetamol, that wouldn't work either. I figured he'd just script me plain 5mg oxy's, but to my surprise, he handed me a script for 50x 1mg hydromorphone. SCORE!

tldr: codeine allergies are codeine specific, and have no bearing on other opioids. also, claiming a codeine allergy is often a good strategy for getting scripted stronger alternatives!

Edit: I remember hearing something about codeine being the most common allergy-enducing opiate because it causes an unusually large histamine response relative to other opioids. Hence the fact that you can't IV it as it will cause such a massive response that your body goes into shock and you might die. Not sure this is 100% accurate, but I do remember reading that somewhere.

[Chip]

my friend uses Heroin and has been recently plagued with differing degrees of allergies from it, as it varies from batch to batch.

i told her to get some anti-histamines (she uses Phenergen^Wiki) and this does the trick but i wonder if she's developing a progressive allergy as it seems to be happening more often ?

[mickeyaye6989 (OP)]

Interesting - are they getting it from multiple sources or just one? Could be a gross new cut that doesn't go over well. Haven't heard of someone developing an allergy slowly over time to dope but the body is a crazy thing so you never know.

[Chip]

i'm not sure about her sources but the gear definitely varies.

another friend who used to use Heroin about 30 years ago developed and EXTREME skin-peeling response to Codeine since then and unbeknownst to her !

[LadyKalma]

It depends on the opiates in question for me. For example, I was addicted to oxy a long time ago and when i got some h it for sure made me feel great, it wasn't like cause I was used to the oxy that I would prefer it. However, my husband did prefer the oxy, still would if it was available. Also, I have always been able to be ok with a small amount of methadone, and despite us having similar sized habits, my husband is still sick seeming with twice as much methadone. Dilaudids seem to work just fine too even though they are something ive gotten rarely so not "used" to them either.

Morphine seems the least preferable to me anyway, way to much histamine reaction. So for me personally I think it dosent seem to work as well cause i can't tolerate doing very much in one setting, face turns super red and everything too. But dosen't h get converted into morphine soon in the body anyway? So maybe it dosen't work as well to make you feel great cause its missing part that happens before its converted? Idk