Can You Get High From Eating/Chewing A Butrans Patch?

Butrans is a prescription buprenorphine patch worn on the skin to deliver slow, continuous pain relief over several days. When used as directed, it provides steady pain control without producing a significant high. However, some people misuse Butrans by chewing or eating the patch to release all of the medication at once.

Buprenorphine is roughly 20 to 50 times stronger than morphine, and releasing an entire patch’s worth of the drug at once can cause intense euphoria, severe respiratory depression, overdose, and death, especially in people without an existing opioid tolerance.

Learn more about the recreational use of Butrans patches

How Does Eating/Chewing A Butrans Patch Get You High?

Chewing a Butrans patch will result in a sudden release of buprenorphine into the body. Buprenorphine is an opioid, and like any other opioid, it has the potential for misuse because it can create a high. This sudden and uncontrolled release of the substance can lead to euphoria or a high.

Risks Of Eating/Chewing A Butrans Patch

Eating or chewing Butrans patches can be extremely dangerous and pose major health risks, including death. The potential for a stronger high is not worth the serious negative consequences of abusing the substance by chewing or swallowing it.

It Is A Choking Hazard

Butrans patches are not dissolvable and they do not break down easily. Attempting to chew or eat a Butrans patch whole may result in choking on the patch.

Overdose On Butrans

Chewing on or eating an entire Butrans patch can lead to dangerous levels of buprenorphine, which may result in a life-threatening overdose. With a Butrans patch, the medicine is designed to release slowly over seven days. For those seven days, buprenorphine is released in doses of 5 micrograms (mcg) per hour (hr), 7.5 mcg/hr, 10 mcg/hr, 15 mcg/hr, or 20 mcg/hr.

An overdose on Butrans can cause:

• fainting
• respiratory depression
• heavy sedation
• coma
• weakness
• extremely low blood pressure
• death

Especially when it comes to the larger doses of Butrans patches, consuming the patch will result in ingesting amounts of buprenorphine significantly higher than the safe hourly dose.

Severe Respiratory Depression

The biggest concern with eating or chewing a Butrans patch is respiratory depression. Consuming such a large quantity of the opioid at once can have major negative consequences on the airways. One 2006 study determining the connection between high doses of buprenorphine and respiratory depression found that the opioid can cause respiratory depression.

The study examined multiple cases of asphyxia deaths reported among those treated with buprenorphine.

Fewer Life-Saving Measures For Buprenorphine Overdose

In the case of severe respiratory depression, it’s much more difficult to administer life-saving measures because buprenorphine does not respond to naloxone. Naloxone blocks and reverses the life-threatening effects of many opioids. However, the respiratory effects from buprenorphine are unaffected by naloxone.

The Ceiling Effect Of Butrans Makes It Dangerous To Consume

Buprenorphine has what’s known as a ceiling effect. This means that beyond a certain dose, taking more of the drug won’t produce a stronger high. This creates a deadly trap for people who chew or eat Butrans patches. Not feeling the euphoria they’re chasing, they may consume more patches thinking the drug isn’t working. The issue is that while the pleasurable effects plateau, the respiratory depression and overdose risk do not. The body continues absorbing dangerous amounts of buprenorphine even when the person feels nothing, which can lead to loss of consciousness and fatal overdose.

Finding Help For Opioid Misuse

Despite its potential for misuse, buprenorphine is actually one of the most effective medications available for treating opioid use disorder. For people with opioid dependence, the fear of withdrawal is major reason they don’t get help, and medications like buprenorphine help address that by managing withdrawal symptoms safely.

If you or someone you know is misusing Butrans or battling opioid addiction, professional treatment is available. Medication-assisted treatment programs that use buprenorphine alongside counseling and behavioral therapy have strong track records of success and give people a path to recovery.

Reach out to a treatment provider, browse our directory, or contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for more helpful information.