Hear ye, hear ye!

Let it be known by all that Suboxone has had its day in a Butler County court — and it was a dismal failure for the opiate addiction treatment drug as well as its manufacturer.

Here’s what reportedly happened Wednesday in the courtroom of Butler District Judge William Fullerton:

Ryan C. Mullen, 31, was handcuffed and shackled, seated against the wall on one side of the room with other inmates awaiting scheduled hearings. Dressed in prison clothes and under police escort, Mullen was getting processed on a charge of armed assault. He’d been locked up in Butler County Prison awaiting trial for nearly two weeks.

Mullen’s mother, Tina L. Rivera, 48, of Butler Township, sat down near her son and spoke to him as Fullerton presided over an unrelated hearing.

Rivera is accused of sneaking a strip of Suboxone out of her purse and slipping it to Mullen.

There’s little doubt that Mullen consumed the drug right there on the spot — in front of the judge, witnesses, police escort, a surveillance video camera and at least two witnesses. Any shred of doubt evaporates with a drug test showing buprenorphine — the active ingredient in Suboxone — in Mullen’s system.

Now Mullen faces additional charges. His mother too, facing felony charges of furnishing a controlled substance to an inmate, conspiracy and delivering a controlled substance.

In a Jan. 12 editorial, The Butler Eagle criticized Suboxone and its maker, Reckitt Benckiser, for phasing out Suboxone tablets and replacing them with Suboxone strips.

Suboxone combines buprenorphine — itself an opioid capable of causing euphoria — with naloxone, the drug overdose antidote also known as Narcan.

Suboxone is dispensed sublingually — a thin strip dissolves under the tongue to release a dose of both its component ingredients, simultaneously suppressing the addict’s urge for opiates and calming a broad spectrum of withdrawal symptoms ranging from restlessness to nausea and diarrhea.

However, the withdrawal symptoms kick into overdrive if the user has heroin or any other opioid in their system; or if the user tries to melt or dissolve the Suboxone and inject it to intensify the euphoria.

Admittedly, neither of these conditions is a problem for most prison inmates. They’re not supposed to have access to drugs or drug paraphernalia. Part of Suboxone’s appeal is that it’s easy to conceal — in the seam of an envelope or spine of a book, for instance.

Another advantage is its widespread availability, in many cases free to addicts recovering under government-paid treatment programs.

Suboxone’s stated purpose is to help addicts kick powerful habits, and for many it does. But for others, Suboxone has become its own addiction — the addiction of choice for some.

The British manufacturer introduced Suboxone strips in 2010 when its patent for Suboxone tablets expired in 2009. The patent for strips protects Reckitt Benckiser for seven years, through 2023.

The tablets and strips are essentially the same formula, according to an antitrust suit filed Sept. 23 against Reckitt in federal court in Philadelphia. The plaintiffs — 35 states and the District of Columbia — claim Reckitt Benckiser eliminated competition by subverting sales of the pills and promoting its film as a safer product.

Reckitt Benckiser’s subsidiary Indivior, which makes and markets Suboxone, generated $1.014 billion in sales in 2015.

At area retail pharmacies, a prescription of Suboxone film costs between $449 and $505. Indivior no longer makes a tablet form of Suboxone, but generic versions of the tablet remain available. Retail prices currently range from $61.28 to $89.98 — about one-fourth the cost of the film.

The risks of Suboxone strips greatly outweigh any benefit. They would do so even if the prices were comparable dose-for-dose — which they aren’t.

Final question: Do you think two people would have been more or less successful trying to pass a tablet in court without being detected? Our answer: Most likely not.

If we’re serious about stopping the drug scourge, then let’s start by getting rid of Suboxone film. Start prescribing the generic pill instead. It’s cheaper and safer, regardless of the manufacturer’s claim otherwise.

At least, stop putting up millions of government dollars to pay for the widespread distribution of such a demonstrated failure.