Can You Inject Suboxone?

Suboxone is one of the most effective tools in opioid addiction recovery, but because it contains buprenorphine (a partial opioid), some people attempt to misuse it by injecting it. If you are wondering whether you can inject Suboxone, the short answer is that while it is physically possible, doing so is extremely dangerous and counterproductive to recovery. Suboxone contains naloxone specifically to deter injection misuse, and injecting it can trigger immediate withdrawal symptoms along with serious medical complications.

Can Suboxone Be Injected?

Suboxone usually comes as a sublingual film or tablet, which you place under your tongue until it dissolves. But since buprenorphine is itself an opioid drug, some addicts will attempt to get high by tampering with Suboxone and abusing it by misusing it. Yes, Suboxone tablets can be crushed, and the resulting powder snorted or dissolved in solution and injected into the bloodstream. However, injection often produces an immediate withdrawal because naloxone cancels out the activity of opioid drugs present in the user’s system, including buprenorphine.

Suboxone is intended to be used only for the treatment of opioid addiction, and it should be taken on a short-term basis under your doctor’s supervision until you are free of all drugs. If you are using Suboxone for any other purpose, you may have become dependent. Treatment can help, and at Allure Detox, our medical detox program is a safe and comfortable process, one that will get you drug-free, sane, and healthy again.

Side Effects of Injecting Suboxone

When Suboxone is injected rather than taken as a sublingual film or tablet as prescribed, the naloxone component becomes fully active and can send the user into precipitated withdrawal almost immediately. Beyond withdrawal, injecting crushed tablets introduces insoluble fillers and binders directly into the bloodstream, which can cause vein damage, collapsed veins, and blockages in small blood vessels. These are serious health problems that often require emergency medical attention.

Other common side effects and risks of buprenorphine injection include:

• Intense nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea from precipitated withdrawal
• Pain, swelling, and redness at the injection site
• Trouble breathing, especially when combined with benzodiazepines or alcohol
• Constipation and abdominal cramping
• Increased risk of blood-borne infections like HIV and hepatitis C from shared or non-sterile needles
• Scarring and tissue damage from repeated injection

These side effects are in addition to the more severe complications like endocarditis, sepsis, and thrombosis covered earlier in this article. If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, contact a healthcare provider immediately.

Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms

The majority of people struggling with opioid use disorder who try to get clean and sober rarely do it “cold turkey” with any success. The withdrawal from opiates is so uncomfortable and physically painful that many people revert to drug use to make the symptoms stop. This is what keeps a person in the cycle of addiction – the fear of withdrawal and the physical dependence their body has developed.

Opioid withdrawal symptoms can include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Muscle aches and body pain
• Insomnia or drowsiness
• Constipation or indigestion
• Anxiety, depression, and irritability
• Cravings
• Fever or chills
• Sweating
• Runny nose and watery eyes
• Headache
• Difficulty concentrating

Understanding these symptoms is important because they are a major reason people begin to inject drugs like Suboxone in the first place – attempting to bypass withdrawal rather than working through it with proper medical advice and support.

Medical Complications of Injecting Suboxone

Injecting Suboxone carries serious medical risks that go beyond the drug’s intended effects. When tablets are crushed and dissolved for injection, the fillers and binders in the pill do not fully dissolve, which can damage veins and surrounding tissue.

Common injection-related complications include abscess, cellulitis, and unspecified injection-site infections. More severe outcomes can include infective endocarditis (a potentially fatal heart valve infection), sepsis, septic arthritis, injection site thrombosis, and ischemia caused by blocked blood flow. These risks increase significantly when people inject in non-sterile conditions or reuse needles.

Mixing Suboxone with benzodiazepines before injecting is especially dangerous and a leading contributor to overdose morbidity, as the combination can suppress breathing to life-threatening levels.

Emergency department visits linked to buprenorphine misuse have risen sharply over the years. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported that nonmedical buprenorphine-related emergency visits climbed from roughly 4,440 in 2006 to over 21,000 by 2011, reflecting broader patterns of misuse. Many of these visits involved injection-related complications that required immediate medical intervention.

If you or someone you know is injecting Suboxone, it is critical to seek professional help before these complications become life-threatening.

The First Stage in Recovery is Detox

When an addict finally decides to get sober and has the will to get sober, they check or herself into a detox facility. Detox is the first stage in the recovery process for most drug and alcohol addictions, where the body is cleansed of the substances that are polluting it. When withdrawing from opioids, medical detox is necessary.

A medical detox facility is a treatment center staffed with doctors and nurses trained in helping patients cope with the withdrawal symptoms of early drug or alcohol abstinence. Without medical care, these withdrawal symptoms can be unpleasant, dangerous, and even life-threatening. During withdrawal, medical intervention is often necessary to keep the patient safe and comfortable, and some of the most common interventions include medication and therapy.

Suboxone is Key in Opioid Addiction Recovery

Some of the most used medications to detox from opioids are Suboxone, Sublocade, and Subutex. These are usually given to a user after the opioids have left the body, and suppose used too soon, the user could go into precipitated withdrawals. Probably the most widely used out of the three and the most successful is Suboxone.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NIH), Suboxone is the combination of buprenorphine and naloxone used to treat opioid dependence (addiction to opioid drugs, including heroin and narcotic painkillers). Buprenorphine is in a class of medications called opioid partial agonist-antagonists, and naloxone is in a class of medications called opioid antagonists. Buprenorphine alone and the combination of buprenorphine and naloxone work to prevent withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking opioid drugs by producing similar effects to these drugs.

Suboxone is more popular due to the ability to get it out of detox treatment facilities. Unlike methadone treatment, which must be performed in a highly structured clinic, buprenorphine is the first medication to treat opioid dependency that can be prescribed or dispensed in physician offices, significantly increasing treatment access. Suboxone can be distributed in many other facilities, including a physician’s office, community hospital, health department, or correctional facility.

Suboxone Abuse and Dependency

Because of this easier availability, it is also easier to abuse. Suboxone is easy to get on the street, and some addicts use it as an in-between to get them through till they can get their next heroin fix.

Even though it is supposed to be part of a drug treatment program to get you off opioids, there has been a rise in users abusing it. According to the DEA, an estimated 21,483 emergency department visits were associated with nonmedical use of buprenorphine in 2011, nearly five times the 4,440 estimated number of buprenorphine ER visits in 2006.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers Annual Report indicates that U.S. poison centers recorded 3,732 case mentions, 2,160 single substance exposure cases, and five deaths involving toxic exposure from buprenorphine in 2016.

Getting Help for Suboxone Misuse

Injecting Suboxone is not only ineffective as a way to get high, it is genuinely life-threatening. If you or someone you know has been injecting Suboxone, it is a sign that professional addiction treatment is needed. At Allure Detox, our medical detox program provides a safe, medically supervised environment where you can stabilize and begin the path toward lasting recovery. Reach out to our team today to learn how we can help.

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Written by: The Allure Detox Editorial Team
Editor: Isaac Adams-Hands
Medically Reviewed by: MedicallyReviewed.com

Published on: April 13, 2020
Updated on: May 4, 2026