22 year chronic pain patient tested and failed opiate test beacuse of marijuana

going to try and make this a small post and if you want more info I will add to it..

I have been attending a chronic pain patient program and seeing a dr for my issues for 22 years... having had a back issue 22 years ago many surgeries etc I found a local dr who I have been seeing for 8 years tested about 4 times for opaite usage and never failed it beacuse I was never using marijuana until 2 years ago.
Since I have been under dr's care I have a normal monthly standing apt to get my pills which for 8 years consisted of various forms of pain killers from ibuprofen to fentanyl and others like anti depression meds insomnia High blood pres muscle relaxers you name it they tossed it at me.
I got my rx for cannabis and was able to reduce all of my pain meds (now just using 30mg morphine 2x day) was taking 60mg 3x day + all the other meds (which I take none of now)

basically 2 mo's ago I took my drug test and they found thc in it and he gave me 3 months to stop using the marijuana since the FDA gives out the rx for my pain I cant use POT since this is not a Federally allowed medication

so since I basically just go to my dr now to get my refill I have called and cancelled all my apts with them and have decided to take myself off this crap and attempt to seek a new dr who can either help me or make my life more tolerable.

I have been using the pot for pain and all the other bennies however I actually DO need the pain meds on certain days. However none of the dr's I have spoken too allow me to use both.......

my ? to one of the Dr's I spoke to was not answered I asked
so if I came to my dr and explained I had a drinking issue (my rx has a lable that says do not drink alcohol while using the med) would he act the same and say I have xxx days to stop and even had they said that... they cant test you for alcohol if dont drink within the 1 hour period per 1 oz booze testing they currently use..


I know others have dealt with this crap and wanted to see how they resolved their issue..

(really wanted to add this.... taking myself off the morphine is really effing hard.... anyone out there seeing a dr for pain please consider the addiction portion of the narcotics... I did not really know I was addicted to it till 4years ago when I was not in pain and did not take my meds that day... the withdrawls I had going "cold" was severe.... )

Your doctors would not have any issues with alcohol in your system. Same thing happend to me. I showed up to re-new my scrips drunk as hell as well as on my scrips. When they found the thc they cut me off the scrips, untll iI completed a program for my marijuana addiction. This is the eccepted medical bullshit in this day and age. Its all about that huge pharmacology industry. Is there no one aware of the sheer # and magnatude of pharmicology developed in the 60s &70 from the compounds found in the cannibis plant? Take motrin, You know Ibuprofen. There are currently over 600 meds now being manafactured in America, with origins steming from the cannibis plant. Nice track record for a plant OUR government claims to have NO medicinal value at all!

cannabis isnt an opiate, they tested you for "illegal narcotics". If youre in a medical cannabis state, find a pain doctor who knows cannabis and it's effects. Perhaps theres a regimen that will get you off the opiate pain killers and the antidepressants. You could also try and get into the federal "experimental trial" program (more than 30 years and counting, with still no published results, Lol) they send you decent dope for free and you can get your own, or grow your own on the side.

are you on some government HMO or federal health plan?

if youre having dependance issues on opiates, see if they will switch you to Marinol or some other cannabinoid pain regimen. they cant test for weed if your prescribed the synthetic version ; )

Dr Kynes said:

cannabis isnt an opiate, they tested you for "illegal narcotics".

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perhaps I misspoke.. or you misread... I was tested for opiate usage (making sure I am taking the pills they are giving nothing more or less then what I given) not on a gov or fed plan unless you count their prescriptions (which are covered by the FDA)

gioua said:

perhaps I misspoke.. or you misread... I was tested for opiate usage (making sure I am taking the pills they are giving nothing more or less then what I given) not on a gov or fed plan unless you count their prescriptions (which are covered by the FDA)

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hmmm if they were testing your opiate load to ensure you were taking the correct dosage, cannabis shouldnt have shown up at all. Cannabis has no opiates, and doesnt interact with them. The only way to identify cannabis is to test for cannabis specifically. This is a part of the "illegal narcotics" test that many insurers and pain clinics use to find out if your a drug seeker (a junkie with a health plan, like Rush Limbaugh LOL). I dont think it's part of any FDA regulation, and the FDA doesnt write prescriptions. I would talk to my doctors and see if i could clear this up.

Several people i know have multiple prescriptions including opiates and antidepressants as well as cannabis recommendations. This could be part of some new plan to crack down on cannabis patients by classifying them as drug addicts (again, LOL) so they have to sacrifice traditional treatments or cannabis, in a classic No-Win proposition.

Talk to your doctor, if he insists on calling you a dope addict over cannabis while ignoring your morphine dependance issue, then it might be time to get a new doctor.

gioua said:

perhaps I misspoke.. or you misread... I was tested for opiate usage (making sure I am taking the pills they are giving nothing more or less then what I given) not on a gov or fed plan unless you count their prescriptions (which are covered by the FDA)

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Ok the prescription meds you are taking are scheduled drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. Further all schedule 2 narcotics require being written on special 'triplicates' that require a special license from the DEA (as an aside triplicates are no longer 3 copies but still require a DEA license).

That was one of the problems in CA when they first passed the medical marijuana initiative. They threatened any doctor with the cajones to recommend Cannabis with losing their schedule drug prescription license. Since many of the pain control center physicians are anesthesiologists this license is required for practice.

Now it depends on what the contract you signed with your physician said. But usually they require scheduled drug testing to make sure you have the actual amount of opiates in your system they are prescribing. Quite a few doctors lost their DEA licenses because they didn't do this monitoring and patients were getting massive scripts for Oxy's etc and then not taking any and selling them. So there is usually a test for opiates in chronic pain patients.

They also look for anyone who has 'diversion' potential. That means anyone who tests positive for any of the illegal drugs. They figure if you are willing to break the law for one drug you are as likely to with another. So the doctors are usually protecting themselves by requiring a contract, frequent visits and testing.

First of all I think you were on codeine, not morphine, and that should be sufficient without MMJ, so allowing you to smoke weed in conjunction with that would not be medically beneficial unless your pain killing requirements are diminishing, and there are unpredictable times when MMJ alone works..From a doctor's POV though, you are definitely going to put up the red flags of a drug-seeker, and they should be weary of that..Where I live you can buy 8mg tablets of codeine without prescription, although it's somewhat controlled via behind the counter access.. Opiate withdrawal is going to suck, that's just the reality. It's not a dangerous or impossible withdrawal from what you've described though, it just requires some fortitude for a little while.If you want to ween yourself off the opiates you can use the 8mg tablets to buffer the withdrawal if they are accessible where you live like I described, and T2's (15mg), T3's (30mg), and to a lesser extent T4's (60mg) are pretty easy to find.. Since not many serious opiate addicts are into codeine by preference, and alot of ppl have leftovers from legit scripts..Word of advice though, the last thing you want to do is chronically pop alot of the low-dose pills! The acetominophen in all those pills is the same IIRC, and over time it will destroy your liver/kidneys.. What I mean is that an 8mg tablet has the same amount of that as a 60mg tablet, so in order to get the same amount of codeine, you'd be consuming 7.5x as much acetominophen..If the MMJ works and is necessary then drop the codeine as gast as you can, if it doesn't then drop the weed for the sake of a high codeine script..

born2killspam said:

First of all I think you were on codeine, not morphine, ..

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really because the script states Morphine generic for MS Contin 60 mg 3x per day... and has said that for about 6 years
a 60 mg morephine pill is the same as 36 5mg pills codeine and lesser meds were what I began with 22 years ago..

again I think the point is getting lost here..

I get a rx every month and this dr office does random drug testing.... TO MAKE SURE I AM USING IT not selling it USING ONLY what I have been legally given I have had MANY tests from this office in the past and they test to make sure I am using what I am given they also make sure I am not taking more or something else....

yea it does kind of suck, pain medication is so widely abused i guess they have to do all this crap. My mother actually quit smoking pot so she could stay on her medication. She used to love to smoke a morning jay all the time, but i guess the pills meant more to her. I guess you gotta pick one or the other. good luck man i know how shitty withdrawrels are. stay strong.

bud nugbong said:

yea it does kind of suck, pain medication is so widely abused i guess they have to do all this crap. My mother actually quit smoking pot so she could stay on her medication. She used to love to smoke a morning jay all the time, but i guess the pills meant more to her. I guess you gotta pick one or the other. good luck man i know how shitty withdrawrels are. stay strong.

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I was given the same option to quit one or the other.. math helped me decided which to stop..
pills + monthly dr visit $250 per mo
total spent on my garden this year $300.00 (inlc my license to use)

I did not make this decision easily but after being on the pills for 22 years I have never had the benefits I get using marijuana from using the pills. I feel that cannabis in certain forms works so much better then the rx crap

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I so far have gone 40 hours w.o ANY opiates!! After 22 years of usage and about 3 weeks of tapering down from 180mg of morphine per day.
Days 1....
What I did was go from day 1 using 180mg per day to 60-90mg usually trying to stretch a 60 mg by breaking in half and going for 14-18 hours on that dosage

I did exp some mild sweats-coldspells-nausea (thank you mmj for making this so much easier!!) Had some more mental issues with the desire to pop a pill being the worse part of the week really... WOW never thought I would literally think about taking a pill. Exp some major insomnia mainly the "jimmy legs" those sucks!!
Day2-4 sleeping issues here and there pretty severe again the mental part was the worst for me... I kept eying the bottle of pills also had some intestinal issues but not as bad as I have had in the past
day5-6 very easy at this point to go a good 10 hours without w.d sypmtoms..
day 7 took a 30mg pill at 10:30 pm on 5-6-12 this was my last pill have not had any symptoms yet and hope I dont.

good 4 u good luck

gioua said:

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I so far have gone 40 hours w.o ANY opiates!! After 22 years of usage and about 3 weeks of tapering down from 180mg of morphine per day.
Days 1....
What I did was go from day 1 using 180mg per day to 60-90mg usually trying to stretch a 60 mg by breaking in half and going for 14-18 hours on that dosage

I did exp some mild sweats-coldspells-nausea (thank you mmj for making this so much easier!!) Had some more mental issues with the desire to pop a pill being the worse part of the week really... WOW never thought I would literally think about taking a pill. Exp some major insomnia mainly the "jimmy legs" those sucks!!
Day2-4 sleeping issues here and there pretty severe again the mental part was the worst for me... I kept eying the bottle of pills also had some intestinal issues but not as bad as I have had in the past
day5-6 very easy at this point to go a good 10 hours without w.d sypmtoms..
day 7 took a 30mg pill at 10:30 pm on 5-6-12 this was my last pill have not had any symptoms yet and hope I dont.

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Stay strong bro, kick the opiates habit and never look back! get your herb on and rock with Mary Jane! shes a sweet sexy thiang! once you get past the first week, then all you gotta do is keep walking past the pill bottles, till you feel confident to toss em all in the bin!

youre makin the right move, for your liver, your digestive tract and your soul.

reppinhigh22 said:

[h=1]"22 year chronic pain patient tested and failed opiate test beacuse of marijuana"[/h]


....what? You're joking right?

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perhaps the title misleads? I have been using pain meds for 22 years tested many times to make sure i am using the amount given and not seling em. Last test showed thc since i only recently started using it about 2 yrs ago. Dr sais he cant prescribed me my pain meds if i use my meds are covered by the fda and federal law does not care what st law says.
I do no use insurance i pay cash so it has nothing to do with ins its dr are told their sced license for giving out pain meds will be revoked.

Way to go brother. I have been a chronic pain patient for ten+ years. You are basicaly screwed. If you want meds you have to pass drug screen. Federal mandate, doc can do nothing....execpt to forget to test you........if you know your doc he will give you ample warning and time to get clean. Congradulations on kicking the oxy..........if your over the "jimmy legs" your physical symptoms are over. Execpt maybe the sweats. The depression will pass, when you take your meds again (if you do) go lightly, take days off of the meds, and dont let em hook you thru the sak again..................peace B

budalushious said:

Way to go brother. I have been a chronic pain patient for ten+ years. You are basicaly screwed. If you want meds you have to pass drug screen. Federal mandate, doc can do nothing....execpt to forget to test you........if you know your doc he will give you ample warning and time to get clean. Congradulations on kicking the oxy..........if your over the "jimmy legs" your physical symptoms are over. Execpt maybe the sweats. The depression will pass, when you take your meds again (if you do) go lightly, take days off of the meds, and dont let em hook you thru the sak again..................peace B

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gonna fess up the jimmy legs got bad.. had to take 1/4th pill it went away within 30 mins then I went 44 hours w.o any and have been at this time going with 1/4th a pill 24-40 hours not to stave off jimmy legs but the back pain is not any better. I am ok at this point using this little compare to what I have been using for 22 years I understand I need to remove this crap from my system 100% and not rely on it as a daily go to.
I am ordering 2000 00- caps today. I did some more research on how THC is and has been used VERY successfully to wean off opiates I have a wedding at the end of this month and have to shoot the ceremony not looking forward to all the work but hopefully all goes well. I retired from Wedding Photography about 4-5 years ago when it became more of a job then the ACTUAL real job I was doing.. wish I used pot back then!!

Hard exercise can help alleviate withdrawal symptoms..

drugs are bad mmkay.

born2killspam said:

Hard exercise can help alleviate withdrawal symptoms..

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From what I have read the exercise does help.. but this can also aggravate my issues... (hard to do much exercise when you have 2 eff up shoulders, effd knee's that have had 3 surgeries a 6'' plate in the forearm Disc issues in the spine.) but I know what ya mean.. Have been told to tense up my leg muscles and then relax and then repeating this.. told this helps the acid in the muscle to start moving or something.. works to a point