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Codine FAQ
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Title : Codeine FAQ
Author : [email protected]
Newsgroup : alt.drugs
Last Revision : June 28, 1994
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Codeine is a member of the drug class opiates. Opiates
include all naturally occurring drugs with morphine-like effects
such as codeine and all semi and fully synthetic drugs with
morphine-like effects such as heroin and meperidine (Demerol).
Codeine was first discovered as a natural constituent of
opium in very small concentrations, in the range of 0.7% - 2.5%
by weight. Most codeine found in pharmaceutical products today
is synthetically produced via the methylation of morphine.
Codeine is available by prescription only in most areas
of the US. Exceptions are seen in some states where codeine can
be purchased over-the-counter (OTC) in products containing a small
dose of codeine. Also in Canada, some codeine containing products
are available OTC in most if not all provinces. With the codeine
available in the US OTC, release forms may have to be signed,
including your name and address, in order to keep track of how
much codeine you are buying.
The amount of codeine allowable by law in OTC products is
8mg per unit dose of a drug. A example is 325mg of acetaminophen
(a unit dose of acetaminophen) and 8mg codeine per tablet. This
law is used to prevent the excessive use of codeine as one would
have to take doses reaching toxicity of acetaminophen before any
real problems with the codeine administration would occur. It's
the same situation with aspirin. With OTC cough medications, the
highest amount of codeine allowed is 3.3mg/ml. This
concentration is _so_ low that this FAQ will not be discussing
cough syrups as a source of recreational codeine. The tablet
form of OTC codeine products usually also includes 15mg of
caffeine in each standard dose.
Prescription codeine containing products are usually not
available without another drug included such as acetaminophen.
Rx (prescription) products include the Tylenol w/ codeine series
(#1,2,3,4) containing respectively 8mg, 15mg, 30mg, 60mg of
codeine. Each tablet also contains caffeine in doses of 15mg,
30mg, 30mg and 0mg respectively. Thus Tylenol #4 w/ codeine
(the most desired one) contains 325mg of acetaminophen, 60mg of
codeine and no caffeine. Another Rx product is the 222, 292,
293, 294 series. They are identical to the Tylenol w/ codeine
series, except aspirin replaces the acetaminophen. The Rx
products are good sources of codeine for recreational use except
most of us don't have sources that can obtain these drugs,
therefore this FAQ contains a procedure so that one can easily
obtain large amount of codeine from OTC products.
Effects and Uses
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Codeine is mainly used as a pain reliever, but is also
used for the relief of a non-productive cough, and as a
anti-diarrheal agent. 120mg of codeine administered SC
(subcutaneously, injected under the skin) provides pain relief
equal to 10mg of morphine administered by the same route. Doses
used to relieve cough or diarrhea range from 5mg to 30mg.
Codeine is absorbed quickly from the GI tract and it's
first pass through the liver results in very little loss of the
drug. This contrasts with morphine in which over 90% of the drug
is metabolized in the first pass through the liver resulting in a
considerable loss of potency when administered orally. This is
why codeine is a common opiate in the relief of pain, the ease of
oral administration.
Codeine can be administered by many routes, this includes,
SC, IM (intramuscularly), as an enema, and orally. Note, codeine
can't be administered safely by IV (intravenously) injection as
it can result in pulmonary edema (fluid in lungs), facial swelling
and other life threatening complications.
Codeine is converted to morphine in the brain. This of
course will result in a positive result in a drug test for the
opiates. It is not known whether or not the drugs heroin,
morphine or codeine can be separately determined on a drug test.
In other words it isn't likely that the drug tester can determine
which of the three above drugs you have taken, he just knows
you've taken one or more of them.
Note! Addiction to codeine can occur. Tolerance is also
seen with chronic use. Although the withdrawal is minimal with
codeine, it is not a fun time. Please be cautious in your use
of the drug.
Some common side effects from codeine include drowsiness,
light-headedness, dry mouth, urinary retention (difficulty in
urination), constipation and of course, euphoria. Adverse
effects can include itchiness (common), confusion, nausea and
vomiting. The nausea experienced with codeine is less common
and less intense than that experienced with the stronger opiates
such as morphine. A tip to all those using opiates, lying down
does wonders to the nausea. If you ever experience nausea on
opiates it is different than the commonly experienced nausea as
it is more of a light-headed nausea. Lying down will almost
always relieve the nausea in a couple minutes, which after you
can attempt to stand up again.
Codeine is a _excellent_ opiate to start experimenting
with. Although the euphoria is not as intense as that
experienced with the stronger opiates, the euphoria can still be
quite intense. It also must be noted that like most other drugs,
some experience is required before the full effects can be
noticed and enjoyed. The best dose to start at is the
30mg - 60mg dosage. That way you won't experience many adverse
effects and you can continue to take this small amount until you
feel the desired effects, after that you can increase the dosage
as you please. Most people settle around the 250mg mark for the
best euphoria, with the least side effects. The best idea is to
take in a situation where you won't become distracted. You can
get yourself into a comfortable position and relax because you
will become _quite_ relaxed. It may take 5 to 20 times before
you can appreciate the effects. The effects are subtle like
marijuana and it takes some time before you come to recognize
them all.
The LD50 (lethal dose for %50) is 800mg in the average
person. Death from codeine, unlike most opiates, includes
restlessness, seizures and eventually death from respiratory
arrest.
Using Codeine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Again a good dose to start using codeine at is in the
30mg to 60mg range. At this dosage range the adverse effects
tend to be minimal, and the pleasurable effects quite noticeable.
It is usually a good idea to take the drug on a empty stomach,
and if nausea is experienced or you get hungry (not likely) you
can have something to eat. On an empty stomach the effects will
become noticeable within 15 min depending on the dose. With
higher doses the effects can begin in as little as 7 min. The
effects peak at around 1 hr with the experience nearing it's end
at around the 3 - 4 hr point. Again with higher doses effects
may last 4 - 6 hours.
The effects will usually begin with a slight sedation,
and a feeling of warmth coming over you body. Muscular relaxation
is also quite noticeable. The subjective effects are quite hard
to describe beyond the word euphoria. The sedation associated
with codeine is quite a lot less than that experienced with
morphine or other stronger opiates. A strong feeling of
contentment is usually also experienced. Most people enter
a phase where you become quite content and tend to lose interest
in their surroundings. A heavy feeling in the limbs also
becomes quite noticeable. This will peak at 1hr with the effects
slowly tapering off after 2hr.
Codeine Extraction Technique
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Due to the difficulty in obtaining Rx drugs containing
enough codeine to be used recreationally, I have included a
procedure that allows one to extract the codeine from OTC
products to obtain enough of the drug to use recreationally.
This extraction can *only* be used on OTC products
containing either acetaminophen or aspirin in addition to the
codeine. There is one exception to this rule. Products
containing caffeine can be used with the knowledge that the most
of the caffeine contained in the OTC product, *will* be found
in the finished product. This should not matter to most people,
but to those with problems in taking caffeine, *you have been
warned*!
The idea behind the following extraction is that
acetaminophen and aspirin (I'll use A/A from now on) are very
_insoluble_ in cold water. Codeine phosphate (the most common
salt of codeine) is very _soluble_ in water including cold water.
The following table explains:
Solubility (31C water) Solubility (21C water)
Aspirin 1g / 100 ml 1g / 300ml
Acetaminophen 1g / 70 ml 1g / 150 ml
Codeine 1g / 2.3 ml 1g / 0.7 ml
Phosphate
So as you can see, both A/A aren't very soluble in 21C
water, so if you cool the water to around 10C, the solubility will
drop even further. That way you can dissolve 20 tablets in 50ml
of hot water, cool the water down to 10C, filter the solution and
end up with the same amount of codeine as the tablets contained
but only a fraction of the original amount of A/A.
It must be noted that because most of the caffeine will
also be in the finished product, using large amount of tablets in
the following procedure will result in large amount of caffeine
in the finished product. For example the use of 20 tablets will
result in about 300mg of caffeine in the finished product
(15mg/tablets * 20 tablets). I personally haven't experienced
any adverse reactions due to this amount of caffeine. Because
of codeine's sedative effects the "jitters" and other adverse
effects of large amount of caffeine are not experienced.
The Procedure
1. Obtain a quantity of tablets containing codeine, check to
see if they contain anything other than codeine, caffeine,
acetaminophen or aspirin. If they do, and you don't know whether
or not it will be a problem, your best bet is not to use them.
Measure out your desired amount of codeine (ex. 64 mg = 8 tablets
* 8mg/tablet). You may want to add 2 extra tablets as it is quite
likely you will lose some codeine in the procedure. As you get
more experience with the procedure you will be able to get
approx. 95% of the codeine extracted.
2. Measure out some nice hot water, use approx. 40ml / 20 tablets
or more if needed. I would suggest you don't go over 50ml for 20
tablets. I don't know if the use of boiling water would destroy
any of the codeine but your best bet is not to use it. Use hot
water but not boiling. Make sure the tablets dissolve completely.
Some dissolve on contact with water while others need some help
dissolving by crushing them. Note : not all of the tablet will
dissolve, there are water-insoluble fillers in the tablet and not
all of the A/A will dissolve either(which is what we want).
3. Place the solution in a cold bath, I just use some ice cubes
in a container of water. Stir the mixture occasionally until the
solution drops to about 15C or lower. You won't need a
thermometer to measure the temperature, just make sure it's
"cold". This will take about 30 min. If you wish to speed this
up, you can use less water to dissolve the tablets, and add ice
chips to cool the mixture faster. Just make sure you don't add
so much ice that you drastically increase the volume of the mixture.
4. Filter the solution using whatever you have. Coffee filters
work well, but lab filters work the best. Just make sure you
don't end up with obvious solids in the filtered solution. This
will take about 1 hr. You may also want to rinse the solids left
over in the filter with some ice-water to extract any remaining
codeine.
5. Drink and enjoy! The solution will be _very_ bitter, so I mix
a little Kool-aid powder into the solution. The taste isn't really
bad but it's similar to sucking on a lemon.
6. Sit back and wait for the effects. Because the codeine is
already in solution it only needs to be absorbed, while codeine
in the tablet form must dissolve before being absorbed. Because
of this, the effects will probably become noticeable within 15min.
Note : I don't suggest you evaporate the mixture unless you are
willing to wait a while. The Merck index warns that codeine is
sensitive to heat and light. For that reason if you wish to
evaporate the mixture, do it without heat, and shield the solution
from light.
----- End of FAQ
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