For those of us who haven’t caught on yet, Suboxone, as well as its brother Subutex, are drugs used to get people off drugs.The main ingredient in both drugs is Buprenorphine.Buprenorphine is a derivative of thebaine, an extract of opium.The withdrawal symptoms associated with Suboxone and Subutex detox are similar to and can be just as severe as those associated with other highly addictive drugs.Buprenorphine works on the opiate receptors in the brain just like other opiates.The truth is, buprenorphine is an opiate – and like all other opiates – it is addictive.Because Suboxone and Subutex contain buprenorphine, they are also an opiate, and are addictive like any other opiate.By taking Suboxone to help beat an addiction to drugs, you are trading an addiction to one drug for an addiction to buprenorphine.The Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration place buprenorphine in the Schedule III category under the Controlled Substances Act, which it did. Now, for the most powerful argument of all, Suboxone brings as much as $20-$30 on the streets of our town, and people are being arrested for TennCare fraud for illegally obtaining the drug.Yet some people still insist that the drug is not addictive.Let’s be realistic.People don’t pay that kind of money for a non-addictive drug.If you are trying to beat a heroin addiction, you will never get anywhere replacing it with cocaine.If you are trying to beat an addiction to alcohol, you won’t accomplish much by replacing it with meth.If you are hooked on opiates, you will never get on the wagon by replacing them with more opiates.