Opioids How long should I wait to safely drink after my last dose of Morphine Sulfate ER

[jt855]

I'm taking morphine sulfate ER 15 mg twice a day. With these ER drugs, I understand that they're designed to stay in the body for long. When looking up the half life for morphine, it would only refer to the morphine itself without factoring the ER delivery system. So I cannot find reliable info for my question.

Just to be clear, I know better than to drink while taking opiates on the same day. But even so, it's the ER delivery system of the medication that concerns me.

How long should one wait to drink, or how long will it take for Morphine Sulfate ER to significantly get out of your system, before it's safe to consume alcohol. Although I only plan to have only a couple of drinks, let's consider if one were to have plenty of drinks for extreme circumstances, in determining how long would it take for the Morphine Sulfate ER to get out of one's system so that they can binge drink without the morphine interacting.

Also, should I be concerned if the morphine would build up in my system like with other longer half life drugs such as SSRIs?


I did ask my doctor and pharmacist, but they've said it's not recommended. I need a reasonable answer as I don't ever really want to drink while taking opiates simultaneously but also want to drink alcohol on occasions like most people do such as going out to dinner and such, while having a straightforward, concise guideline of knowing for sure I'm safe (like 2-3 days after my last pill then I'm good to drink). Thanks!

 

[sekio]

It would depends a lot on your personal physiology. Unfortunately "plenty" of drinks isn't a number, and that quantity could vary widely depending on how often and how much you consume when you get drunk. Doctors err on the side of caution because they don't want you to end up sick(er) or dead.

Generally speaking I would wait 12 hours after taking an ER morphine pill to be certain it's mostly worn down. If you have been taking them contiguously for a few days you may want to give it longer to ensure your blood levels drop.

However, realistically speaking, if you keep an eye on your intoxication level, there is no reason you cannot have a few social drinks while on morphine. As long as you take it easy (don't start the night by doing a half dozen shots, or shotgunning a beer, etc) you should be just fine. If you have a tendency to get blackout drunk or you cannot control your intake, in the worst csse the combination could depress your breathing or gag reflex to the point where you can aspirate vomit and die, or in a less severe case you could find yourself getting very sick, very quickly, as morphine and alcohol will increase the inebriating as well as the depressant effects of each other.

If you're not going to be on morphine forever I would just stick to limiting your consumption, you may be suprised at the effect a few beers can have while on a moderate dose of morphine, without going hard to make it unsafe. You can go back to partying hard and getting turnt up later.

Again, if you go overboard with alcohol while on morphine, you risk respiratory depression and/or nausea and a generally unpleasant time. For safe "binge drinking", wait at least 12 hours after the last morphine dose. And there's really no such thing as safe binge drinking, btw...

 

[jt855]

Thank you so much for providing the info.

Oh, I'm sorry about the links as I just copy and pasted without realizing they're there.