mirror-textfiles.com/drugs/ALT.DRUGS/faq-codeine

Title : Codeine FAQ
Author : mdh@debug.cuc.ab.ca
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