methadone and driving
 

i'm wondering if its legal to operate a motor vehicleafter you got a perscriptiondose of methadone. idid some reseaech and it evidently is,but i dont think they should becauseidont see them in control of basic ,ovement let alone driving jacked up on that shit. i'd liketo hear oppinions on this as i aleo want y
to explorethis treatresatment
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As far as I know, it's illegal to drive while impaired by anything, be it drugs, alcohol, or sleep deprivation. From the little I know about methadone, It seems that a single dose will impair driving abilities while using it regularly seems to have less of an effect on your abilities. Best bet would be to not attempt it.

i wasn't thinking about methadone for myself,what happened was a guy hit a jogger and did some critical damage to her.he was uninsured and the jogger had considerable hospital and rehab bills.the driver, an addict on methadone therapy had drug and gun charges pending so they made up a plea bargain,where the driver signed a release of his medical records so the jogger could sue the methadone clinic.i guess because they have deeper pockets.

no it's not legal. Methadone is a controlled substance which means you are driving under the influence.

The methadone clinic could be sued in a civil trial but more than likely it's still going to fall to the person who used it while driving in a civil case.

You don't get high or out of control on Methadone.
It is a maintenance program. You do feel pain less.
If you are not in a program and using it...that is something else.

wrong. Methodone is a synthetic opiate. It is very easy to use and get high much like heroin. Even if it is prescribed as a maintenance drug, it is no different than being prescribed vicodin or oxycontin. It's how you use it that determines what effects the drug gives off. Regardless of it's use, it is still a controlled substance and is no different than any other controlled substance when it comes to driving. If you are on a controlled substance you are not legally supposed to drive.

I knew when I posted that some "educated" person would jump in and tell me I'm wrong.
I'm not going to respond further. I know what I'm talking about. You did not even really read my post.

Edit: and I don't appreciate a reminder to create a new thread.
I am not really respected around here and avoid posting.

It is a mu receptor agonist and glutamate antagonist by means of NMDA binding. Mu receptor activation results in analgesia and sedation, while NMDA binding can result in dissociate anesthesia. It may not get you high and out of control, but it certainly does have an effect on consciousness that will impair judgment and decrease reaction time. An obnoxious response with no actual content isn't very convincing.

Mr. Fancy, you have not been there and YOU don't know what your talking about.
If you are in a program, it is a maintenance dosage which is what I was talking about and was very clear about.

Aside from your ability to use the internet to debate, are you a doctor with experience in this matter?

As the voice of reason, this is a legal question, not a medical one. I don't have any laws open in front of me since I'm only willing to spend a couple minutes looking, but driving while impaired is a crime, equal with drunk driving. My guess is that if the label says that you should not drive, then you can't. Check out this website:

Drug Impaired Driving

And everyone, let's please take a deep breath and try to converse maturely. Please.

Basically under long term narcotic use patients are generally advised to refrain from driving or operating machinery until they know how it will affect them. Also keep in mind that those using these drugs will build up a certain tolerance which will make them able to perform usual tasks as they adjust to the medicine. The idea is to give life back to them, not to further cripple them. Basically, you have to determine whether you are under the influence or not. Unfortunately, you need to take in account that if there is an accident and the drug use comes to light you will almost certainly be put at fault just for using the drug. The same falls into play with people who are driving with casts, or boots.. anything that could technically affect their ability to drive properly.

I have a lot of experience with methadone.

My wife is a chronic pain patient because of a botched cervical surgery many years ago. She had been on many opiates over the years to control the pain, and I can say that flat5 is partially correct in asserting that when a person is in pain, they do not get the "high" from a narcotic that the recreational abuser would.

That being said, I can't say enough bad things about methadone. When one of my wife's pain specialists switched her from percocet to methadone, there was a marked difference. When she took percocet and/or oxycontin, she always was in control and always appeared normal; when the doctor switched her to methadone, she "acted" as if she were high - slurred speech, loss of coordination, etc. It also had the unfortunate side effect of making her gain weight dramatically (about 70 lbs in one year). Although I'm no doctor, I believe it's because methadone fucks up your body so bad it loses the function to correctly metabolize food. Or correctly do anything, for that matter. I could write from here to next Tuesday and still not be done listing all the reasons people should stay the fuck away from methadone - it's a terrible drug, and more addictive than heroin and tobacco combined. Most Rehab facilities won't even allow a methadone addict in their doors. Luckily, my wife ended up quitting all opiates on her own - cold turkey. But it was an awful process - she was in withdrawal from the methadone for over a year (and lost the 70 lbs in the first few months). It's not a process I would wish on my worst enemy.

Nobody - I repeat, nobody - should be driving a car while on methadone.

Sorry about your wife's experience with methadone in the USA.
Sounds like the wrong use of the drug. As far as cold turkey, as bad as M. is, one of it's "good" points is the ability to control getting off it. The dosage is predictable so dropping every two or four weeks 2.5 ml (? I can't remember the units) is relatively easy. There are much better short term ways to remove opiates from the system but they don't fit the pencil pushers (statistics). For long term clean up of opiates M. can be useful for people who have real trouble staying away from them. It's the only approved treatment the clinics use. Too bad, really.

My point was that when taken every day, the same amount or less, you are not like a drunk. You have full control of your muscles and mind.
You function as a normal person. There are nasty side effects which vary among people.

yup

First of all, it depends on the state.

DUI laws vary by state, and are generally of two types: one is that the person is under the influence and the substance incapacitates them, and the other is if the drug is present in the body at all. So some states do not allow, or are trying to pass laws not to allow, people under even prescribed doses of opioids to drive.

In others, the "impaired" part is the key, and while people are generally not impaired under the influence of small prescribed doses of methadone, if someone is involved in an accident law enforcement might decide to tack that on.

So I would check the laws in your current state, and always be aware that even if one is not impaired, it doesnt mean that the law enforcement won't try to prosecute it that way in the case of an accident.

My point, exactly. Detox/rehab clinics use small doses of methadone to wean opiate addicts off of their drug of choice. That's why they don't treat methadone addicts - they can't give you methadone to get you off methadone.

Believe me - we called many clinics when my wife's pain doctor dropped her care suddenly. Evidently, he got tired of us arguing with him about how much methadone he had her on, and we wanted her switched back to percocet; so he decided on the day that her Rx was to be filled that he didn't want her as a patient any longer. We had to call over a dozen detox clinics before we found one that would accept her. Even then, they said the best they could do was to give her some meds to control her blood pressure, and some valium to "take the edge off" the withdrawal. Then they released her three days later.

I don't believe that one bit as one of the guys I was in rehab with OD'd on methadone a few months out of rehab. He entered rehab as a methadone addict because he switched from heroine to methadone. It wasn't pretty the first few days he was in the center because the detox was excruciating.

An addict gets high on anything.

As far as being impaired while driving. Isn't that just dumb? I mean why risk taking someone's life accidentally?

Why did he not just go back to heroin if he wanted to get high? I've never used either but from what I've heard, while it's possible to get high off methadone it's not nearly as forgiving or enjoyable as other opioids.

i don't know. he's dead, can't ask him at all.