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Is It Legal to Buy Methadone Online?

By Jodee Redmond
Updated May 17, 2024
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In the United States and many other countries, it is not legal to buy methadone online. This drug is considered a controlled substance in several other countries around the world. Buying, selling or possessing it without a prescription is a criminal offense and is punishable by a fine, imprisonment or both.

Methadone is an opioid, which puts it in the same class of drugs as heroin and morphine. It can be used for pain relief, but it is mainly used by people who are trying to break free of a heroin addiction. Using methadone helps the addict to get off of heroin without experiencing withdrawal symptoms, since the methadone acts on the opioid receptors in the individual's brain without the addictive properties of heroin.

This drug is only available by prescription, and its use is highly regulated. When methadone is being used as part of a detoxification program, it can only be distributed by centers which have been registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and are providing detox or maintenance services to people with addiction issues.

When methadone is being used by a person in recovery, it is mixed with juice. The individual receiving the drug must drink it in front of a nurse or addiction worker to ensure that it is being taken by the person for whom it was prescribed. An individual who wants to buy methadone online would not be able to meet this condition for using the drug.

In Canada, it is also illegal to buy methadone online. Under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, a physician who wishes to prescribe it as a pain reliever must apply to the federal government for an exemption. It is illegal to sell the drug without a license, and it's also a crime to buy methadone online or have it without a prescription.

A prescription for methadone is usually only available from a doctor who is working at a methadone clinic. The drug may be dispensed from the clinic or a few pharmacies. In either case, the patient is required to drink the beverage containing the medication in front of the pharmacist. As an extra measure of security, the patient must speak to the pharmacist after drinking to demonstrate that the solution was swallowed.

In the United Kingdom, methadone is considered a Schedule 2 drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It is only legal to possess methadone in that country if the drug was prescribed by a doctor and is being used as directed by the physician. It is definitely not legal to buy methadone online in the UK.

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Discussion Comments

By anon995818 — On May 30, 2016

Let's be realistic. Individuals can subject themselves to all sorts of analgesic pain relievers opiates, acetaminophen, NSAIDS, short acting narcotic medications, but I strongly disagree with a program that starts you off with a regimen, with a physical therapist, psychologist, and medical specialist, and then in four years, changes the whole direction and says, this is not for you because of the opiates.

If, in fact, a patient is this debilitated by a back or a leg, etc., then support groups at work and home should be told what to do. Now, because of a trend of celebrities dying young and having taken to some extent these meds, the determination as to what is to be done to the program takes their early deaths into consideration. We are not puppets or rag dolls to be experimented on and if a system chosen a while back is working, then why is this person being hastened, and not receiving the short term meds?

I made a promise to my mother that I would be there to help her in her "golden years", and I am. I am seventy and I make sure she eats properly, takes certain vitamins, drinks water and continues with a mind not clouded with past memories but creates new goals and new ways of looking at the younger generation. Methadone has helped me help her in that it allows me to carry on daily tasks without residual pain in two major places.

By Reminiscence — On Mar 28, 2014

@Phaedrus- I had a classmate who ended up in a methadone clinic and he said methadone didn't hit him as hard as heroin, but it still packed a punch. It mostly took away the pain of withdrawal for him.

By Phaedrus — On Mar 28, 2014

I think some people believe methadone is a different kind of drug than what it really is. It's not some sort of anti-heroin or detox medication. Heroin addicts get addicted once again to methadone, but doctors can wean them off methadone easier than they can heroin. It has a therapeutic purpose in that sense, but methadone is still a powerful opioid. I wouldn't want anyone being able to get it online without a prescription.

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