Buprenorphine is available in Malaysia in the form of Temgesic Sublingual 0.2 mg
tablets (without the opiate antagonist naloxone). This makes it
recreational for people with low or no opiate tolerance. I’ve had
experience in the opiate family, more notably with DHC, methadone and
heroin so I’ll be basing the report against the three other opiates
that I’m familiar with.
Temgesic sublingual 200 ug buprenorphine tablets is manufactured by
Reckitt & Colman and I’ve taken it through the sublingual route (as
it’s meant to be taken, nullifying the liver first pass effect) and
insufflated. I noticed that using the sublingual route makes it
unpredictable, since it’s hard to keep the tablets in place. Preparing
the buprenorphine (commonly known as “bupe”) for insufflation allows
for a more reliable delivery mechanism. Buprenorphine is water soluble
so intranasal delivery is a viable method.
Temgesic Sublingual 0.2 mg buprenorphine tablets has an “L” imprint on the front…
…and the “cross” Reckitt & Colman logo at the back of the
tablet. Buprenorphine is used for treatment of heroin (and sometimes
cocaine) dependant individuals, just like methadone. The difference
between bupe and methadone is the latter is a full opiate agonist (just
like heroin) while bupe is a partial opiate agonist. This makes a huge
difference in terms of recreational value – I would put buprenorphine
after DHC (dihydrocodeine) but before methadone and heroin in terms of
recreational potential.
Preparing the Temgesic Sublingual 0.2 mg buprenorphine tablets for
insufflation requires a piece of paper and a knife (spoons can also be
used, but knives are easier to work with due to its versatility). The
amount of buprenorphine for the session is calculated and the tablets
spread out at the crease mark on a piece of folded paper. I usually
insufflate (snort) 1.4 mg of bupe, so that’s 7 x 0.2 mg tablets. I
noticed that this is good starting dose, if no opiate agonists have
been taken within the same week.
I use a hard flat surface to crush the tablets – the folded “wings”
of a balisong is useful for this purpose. Delicacy is necessary to
avoid tearing the paper – I use alternating downwards and sideway
pressure to methodologically crush the tablets into powder form.
This is what the outside of the paper should look like after the
tablets have been crushed. The pockmarks are where the tablets used to
be before it’s crushed into power. It’s important to note that due
diligence should be exercised during this process to avoid spillage
through the sides of the paper, which can happen if too many tablets
are being crushed at one time.
Here’s a look at the crushed bupe tablets – the folded pieces of
paper allows the powder to remain in one place. You’ll notice that the
powder is still quite grainy, and thus, not so conducive to
insufflation, so further refinement of the powder is necessary.
This is where I use the back of the knife (the edge that’s not
sharp) to run sideways against the folded piece of paper while applying
pressure…
…and here are the resulting marks on the paper after the process
is completed. The marks on the paper are meant for an indicative
comparison and should not be treated as an empirical method of
establishing that the bupe tablets have been crushed and refined.
This is what the powder looks like after it’s been refined…the
tablets should have been powdered into a fine…er, powdery substance
by now. It should be noted that the powder looks “compact” coz of the
folded paper, but it can be “chopped” with anything to form fine powder
lines suitable for snorting.
Download: Insufflating buprenorphine [sixthseal.com]
I find that buprenorphine is rather enjoyable during the times that
you have no to little opiate tolerance. It’s not comparable to
methadone (which is much more euphoric), but it beats dihydrocodeine by
a long shot. The effects can be felt about 15 minutes after
insufflation and it peaks at about the T+ 0:45 mark. The peak can be
quite intense and gives off a satisfactory euphoria that you’ll expect
from opiate agonists.
I like buprenorphine and I’ve been purchasing it during my
excursions back to Sibu (bupe is a restricted pharmaceutical and it’s
hard to obtain through legitimate channels, so I go through my pharmacy
friend). It’s not comparable to methadone, but it’s recreational in its
own right. It’s good for the times when methadone is not available.
Both are used for withdrawal management with heroin dependant
individuals, but both can be used recreationally as well. I’m giving
buprenorphine the thumbs up for recreational value.
