the hospital employee says to me
how do we find the heroin addicts
I blink, wanting to laugh
they will find you, I want to say
they are in your clinics
they are in your employ
"You could advertise," I say
innocently, picturing buses
with addicts shooting up
plastered on the postered side

the hospital worker looks uncertain
"Would you like me to put the word out?"
I say, "Among my former addicts?
That the hospital clinics now want to treat them?"

She nods, looking worried
as well she might
I thought the hospital clinic docs
now trained in suboxone
rolling out the red carpet, new program
rumored that all the high dose opioid patients
would be put on suboxone

But no, it's worse than that
they'll use buprenorphine for chronic pain
without the naloxone
the naloxone is the deterrent to shoot or snort

don't worry, I think.
I don't say
it's heroin all over again
it's methadone all over again
it's oxycontin all over again

give the buprenorphine without naloxone
and the opioid addicts will flock

and I wait for the county death rates to rise.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16148422 Well. The addiction rate in chronic pain people on opioids is somewhere between 8% and 58%, depending on the source you use.....


https://casapalmera.com/blog/how-suboxone-and-subutex-can-help-chronic-pain/ Yeah, this says it's an easier withdrawal. Um, lies lies and more lies. To sell drugs.