i was on buprenex for 4 years...it is the parental drug of suboxone/subutex...its all bupenorphine except mine was a larger dose and was muscular/injectable.......i was taking vikes about 50 a day....if i had lortab 10's i would take between 40 - 50 a day/oxycodone 300mg/any type of opiates...with the suboxone for maintance purposes it takes about 6 months for initial therapy,but we addicts are all different and our cases are different...someone who takes heroin may be on a larger dose for a longer period of time...hydrocodone addicts that were on 50mg a day are different than someone who was on 400mg a day...the thing is they treat you with subox to get you off of the pills and stop the w/d's,then slowly,ever so,wean you off the bupenorphine,then deaql with sobriety....docs can think addiction differently...my doc writes me a script for 60mg of methadone daily...he is a recovering addict,5 years sober,so he knows addiction....get my drift....chef