LET'S GET REAL

Yes, addicts will be addicts. Yes, I've heard of adults huffing
paint, shooting Viagra, smoking crumbs from the carpet and even,
occasionally, of somebody abusing "bupe" - all in a desperate search
for any kind of high to substitute for their elusive drug of choice.
But let's get real: No hard-core (or any-core) addicts are seriously
seeking Suboxone for steady consumption.

And The Sun fails to offer any convincing evidence of widespread
abuse of the drug other than anecdotal comments from
attention-seeking abusers and disgruntled doctors.

I might remind those doctors that addiction is cunning, baffling and
demoralizing - that Suboxone does what it claims to do, nothing more.
Sometimes nothing less than a spiritual awakening can restore an
addict to sanity.

But more to the point, the only evidence The Sun cites of mortalities
from such abuse is that buprenorphine is a supposed "factor in more
than 100 deaths since 1996." But these deaths also involve
"combination with other substances," which probably include toxic
levels of alcohol, heroin or cocaine, with buprenorphine contributing
little more than a blip on the toxicology report.

The Sun's series sensationalizes claims of abuse of a fairly benign
drug that addicts on the street disregard as a serious high.

Joshua Bloomberg Baltimore