What are Suboxone strips?
Suboxone strips, also known as Suboxone film, is a form of Suboxone that’s made into easily-dissolved strips that a user places under their tongue. Suboxone film is intended for sublingual absorption because this is the most effective way to absorb the buprenorphine aside from injection.
Suboxone strips contain all the active ingredients that can be found in a Suboxone pill. However, they are much more difficult to abuse. It’s not uncommon for people who are prescribed Suboxone pills to attempt taking the drug another way. It can be crushed up and snorted or injected. Though there is little benefit to taking the drug this way – Suboxone is absorbed quickly and effectively when taken sublingually – this continues to be a common practice in some areas. Aside from this, there is really no difference between Suboxone strips and other forms of the medication. They contain the exact ratio of active ingredients and are available in the same range of dosages.
Studies show that Suboxone is effective for reducing opioid misuse. It’s also effective for keeping people with opioid dependence in treatment over a period of 24 weeks. (How well a drug such as Suboxone performs is partly assessed based on how long people stay in treatment. SEE: How To Spot Fake Suboxone Pills
How To Take Suboxone Strips Properly
There are two ways to administer Suboxone strips- sublingual or through the insides of the cheek. Moreover, the films can be placed under the tongue or on either the left or right side of the inside of the cheek. Either way, the strip is left to dissolve easily without further concern.
The important thing to remember regarding Suboxone strips is they should be dissolved completely. It cannot be chewed, swallowed, or cut to get the expected potency.
Using this sublingual administration, people who need help to recover from opioid dependence don’t need to take Suboxone in pill form anymore. One of the common disadvantages of taking the drug as a pill is that the process is not as discreet compared to the film and also may have a greater potential for abuse.
Signs of an Overdose
If you are concerned that someone is too high, their life may depend on whether or not you leave them alone or take it upon yourself to investigate further and possibly seek medical help. If the person is still conscious, keep them awake and moving if possible and monitor their breathing.
If you note any of the following signs of an overdose, please call 911 immediately.
- Loss of consciousness
- Unresponsive to outside stimulus
- Awake, but unable to talk or respond
- Breathing is slow, shallow, erratic, or has stopped
- Cyanosis – For lighter skinned people, skin tone (particularly fingers or lips) turns bluish or purple, and for darker skinned people, it turns grayish or ashen.
- Choking sounds, or a snore-like gurgling noise (also called the “death rattle”)
- Vomiting
- Body is very limp
- Face is pale or clammy
- Pulse (heartbeat) is slow, erratic, or absent
If someone is making disturbing or odd sounds while they are sleeping or unconscious, it is worth trying to wake him or her. Many loved ones of users think a person is snoring, when in fact the person could be in the midst of an overdose. These situations represent missed opportunities to intervene and save someone’s life.
Moreover, it is relatively rare for someone to die immediately from an overdose. When a person survives, it’s because someone was nearby to respond.
How Long Does Suboxone Strips Stay In Your System?
How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your Urine?
A urine test can detect Suboxone for at least 9 hours after you ingest the drug, but how long it lasts varies based on the type of lab test used. Unfortunately, there is very little information on the duration of naloxone in your urine, but there are detailed studies on how long buprenorphine stays in your urine.
In one study, researchers found that buprenorphine can show up in urine screenings for up to 24 to 96 hours after use. The results are not the same for everyone, and they vary based on the type of urine test used. Many home urine tests do not screen for Suboxone.
How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your Hair?
Drug tests can detect Suboxone in your hair for up to 3 months. There is not a lot of research on how long naloxone stays in your hair. But because buprenorphine stays in your system longer due to its longer half-life, you simply need to consider how long this drug stays in your hair. Buprenorphine stays in your hair for up to 90 days. But the detectable concentration of this drug can vary based on the section of hair tested.
How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your Blood?
Suboxone stays in your blood for up to two days. However, how long it lasts and is detectable in a drug screening is not the same for everyone. Suboxone and other drugs clear out of people at different rates based on the following factors:
- Genetics
- Age
- Weight
- Metabolism
- Frequency of use
- Duration
- Dosage
- Hydration
- Physical activity levels
You can also estimate how long a drug stays in your system by looking at its half-life. When the drugs in Suboxone complete a half-life cycle, half of the drug is out of your blood. It takes about five half-lives to get a drug out of your system.
Typically, after five half-lives, 3% or less of the dosage should still be in your blood. You stop feeling the brain effects of most drugs long before this point. But you may be able to detect the drugs in your blood until about the end of the fifth half-life. Buprenorphine has a half-life of 24 to 48 hours, so it stays in your system for between 5 and 10 days. Naloxone has a half-life between 30 minutes and 12 hours. This drug can be out of your system quickly.
How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Your Saliva?
Drugs stay in your saliva about as long as they stay in your blood. As a result, Suboxone can be in your saliva for up to 2 days on average. The length of time Suboxone stays in your saliva varies based on how you ingest the drug. If you take the drug under your tongue, it stays in your saliva for a lot longer than if you get an intravenous injection.
After five hours, people who took Suboxone under their tongues had a 100 to 1,000 times higher concentration of the drug in their saliva than people who injected the drug. When you take Suboxone under your tongue, the naloxone stays in your saliva. Once you swallow the saliva, the drug gets destroyed by first pass effect. With a hepatic first pass, the drugs go from the digestive tract to the liver through the portal vein. Then, they get metabolized before they even enter your bloodstream.
How Long Does Suboxone Stay in Lab Tests?
The time Suboxone is detectable in a lab test is not the same for everyone. Drug tests can find Suboxone for the following amounts of time:
- Urine between 9 hours and 4 days
- Hair up to 90 days
- Blood up to 2 days
- Saliva up to 2 days
The length of time Suboxone stays in your system depends on multiple factors including your genetics, age, weight, metabolism, frequency of use, and more. ALSO SEE: How Long Does Methadone Stay In Your Urine
