I don't know if I am answering your question or not, but I do know that the less the bupe the better. You will feel the effects of <2mg more than 8mg or so once you are stable on it. Saying that I would start at less than 2 and let it build up in your system until you are stable. I would definitely not go more than 2 and wait 2 hours in between doses- take 1mg then a half- waiting 2 hours in between each one. Obviously you will need to be in a state of withdrawal from your opiate of choice. There is a COWS test you can take and if you are honest with it (only for your benefit), you will know when it is time to take the first bupe dose. If you do not wait long enough you WILL go into precipitated withdrawals. I have never experienced this but I hear it is worst than hell on earth as the bupe kicks all other opiates off of the receptors as it's binding infinity is probably the strongest of all opiates. This means all of the withdrawals that would take place over a few days hitting you right away and lasting a day or so. Bupe takes forever to peak as it has an extremely long half-life. You will also build up more in your system as the half life is more than 24 hours. So you don't want to go too high as most MDs put people on now. I think that they lowered the maximum daily dose to 12mg. It is the weirdest opiate (partial) I have ever used, and cannot take it for long periods of time as it gives me outragous panic attacks. You are right though, you will need to go slow when tapering off for good. If you start at 1.5 then you will have a much shorter taper and a lot more painless! You could lower by .25mg every few weeks and then 18 weeks or so later you will be off of it all! PM me if you need more info as I am pretty versed in opiate replacement therapy.