What do pharmacists see when you purchase codeine OTC

[drug_mentor]

I realise that. People are asking for advice on how to buy multiple packets and how to get around the ID recording system so that they can source more product. Bluelight is here for harm reduction, not to help people source drugs.

This is correct.

I have removed a number of posts from this thread which either mentioned specific pharmacy chains or requested information on how to circumvent the ID recording system that some chemists seem to be implementing when it comes to purchasing OTC codeine products. This kind of post is against the guidelines, future posts of this kind will be removed and disciplinary action may be taken against the relevant poster(s).

With that said, I have had a discussion with the other mods and we have agreed that people sharing their anecdotal experience in regards to showing ID or not when purchasing codeine is fine, so long as the name of the pharmacy is omitted. Whilst we appreciate that this could be vaguely construed as availability discussion we have decided to allow this discussion for the time being.

We have reached this decision primarily for following reasons:

1. We feel there is some value in users being able to share these experiences so that others can get a rough idea of the general protocols which chemists are employing when it comes to selling codeine. This value largely consists in giving addicts a general idea of the tenability of maintaining a codeine habit and allowing them to make a more informed decision about whether to taper before they might be forced to go cold turkey.

2. OTC codeine products are completely legal and some leniency in this case seems to be relatively harmless. Whilst I appreciate that arguments similar to the one above might be used to justify certain discussions of RC and/or dark net drug suppliers which are currently prohibited, the mod team have decided that there is a substantive distinction between legal and illegal products.

3. Traffic is extremely low and we have decided there is no utility in stifling one of the few discussions which has generated a lot of recent interest when the object of discussion is relatively harmless.

It is important to note that this decision does not reflect a change in the AusDD Guidelines. There is some room for mod discretion when interpreting the guidelines which is being exercised here, however, this does not mean that availability discussion is allowed more generally. If someone would like to make a post or thread and is not sure whether it falls within the guidelines or not, the best thing you can do is drop one of the moderators a PM and ask.

 

[smokedup]

So, it seems, in WA, its at the discretion of the pharmacist to use this monitoring system. It doesnt seem like its at all linked with anyone else, but maybe their own chain of pharmacies.

I had a chat with the old bird, and she said its just a waste of time and money going to the doc for a simple sports injury, or temporary problem. Sheer lunacy. Especially for people with odd working hours like mine.

Sometimes just for a push in the right direction, codeine is all you need. Sheer relief from symptoms is all i need sometimes and i wake up going: 'hey, that nod was great, ahhhhh, what were my problems again?' lol

 

[oliveoyl]

Noticed phenylephrine 9.6 mg Codeine and paracetamol in OTC chemist brand cold medication for like <snip> dollars a pack of 24
the ones behind the counter, 40 tabs for <snip> eh thought they were making codeine script aurth only, or were contemplating it

 

[spacejunk]

Nah, still codeine is still available otc - just some stores monitor customer usage and restrict accordingly.
Anything with phenylephrine in it is pretty useless for people wanting to get a codeine buzz though, as it's not easily extracted as far as i know. I suspect it's not something you'd want to OD on either.

And yeah, even with legal products, price discussion isn't allowed i'm afraid...

 

[Juc]

I travel daily between Sydney and Melbourne and have been sourcing my OTC codeine in both cities for 8 + years. I've found that there is a big difference in attitude between Vic pharmacists and NSW. Lately, Vic chemists are getting real tough. I can only think of 4 or 5 chemists out of my previous round of 30+ which don't ask for ID now, while in NSW it's a lot easier to get OTC codeine without ID. One major chain and a couple of independents only (maybe 10% total) out of my "round" ask for ID in NSW and which I now avoid. So in Vic it's maybe 90% that refuse, and in NSW it's closer to 10%.
This all means that I've begun a taper. I'm over the whole addiction thing anyway. It was becoming a full time job just getting enough to hold me (3 packs per day). Down to < 1 pack per day (26 pills at the moment) and tapering at 20% per week. Wd's are tolerable. Not going back on suboxone. Hate that shit. It's time to pull myself out of this fog.
I've been lucky with the stomach problems that I keep hearing about. 8 years of swallowing 80-100 pills of 12.8mg codeine/200mg ibuprofen daily (apart from 2x 6-8 month periods on bupe programs) and my stomach still seems ok. Never used the paracetamol tablets, only the ibuprofen ones.

 

[swilow]

^Get your kidneys checked, nsaids fuck with it as well as stomach. Kidney is useful.

 

[kendo33]

The u.s. is a little behind on the codeine wagon..not that it's too strong anyway.... we live north of seattle and can get aspirin with codeine in Canada "222"s but now that we have pot here it's better and saves the drive....)

 

[melissann8135]

I live in nth QLD and Medsassist is currently in action in most chemists I go to... There are a few around that dont ask for ID but still label with yr name. I have a pretty good relationship with my local pharmasists, and am able to get either a pack of nurofen + or panadeine extra every 5 days. It has to be 5 full days inbetween. So say i get one on Monday i cant get another until Sunday. Its quite frustrating as i take these meds for an auto immune condition and have found myself going to my GP and getting a script for stronger meds eg Forte or Endone and am now worried that because of this stupid idea i will now find myself addicted to these drugs. My pharmasist lets me know quite a bit about the monitoring and its def in action here in QLD.... GRRRR

 

[consumer]

I travel daily between Sydney and Melbourne and have been sourcing my OTC codeine in both cities for 8 + years. I've found that there is a big difference in attitude between Vic pharmacists and NSW. Lately, Vic chemists are getting real tough. I can only think of 4 or 5 chemists out of my previous round of 30+ which don't ask for ID now, while in NSW it's a lot easier to get OTC codeine without ID. One major chain and a couple of independents only (maybe 10% total) out of my "round" ask for ID in NSW and which I now avoid. So in Vic it's maybe 90% that refuse, and in NSW it's closer to 10%.
This all means that I've begun a taper. I'm over the whole addiction thing anyway. It was becoming a full time job just getting enough to hold me (3 packs per day). Down to < 1 pack per day (26 pills at the moment) and tapering at 20% per week. Wd's are tolerable. Not going back on suboxone. Hate that shit. It's time to pull myself out of this fog.
I've been lucky with the stomach problems that I keep hearing about. 8 years of swallowing 80-100 pills of 12.8mg codeine/200mg ibuprofen daily (apart from 2x 6-8 month periods on bupe programs) and my stomach still seems ok. Never used the paracetamol tablets, only the ibuprofen ones.

That amount of ibuprofen is crazy. Go get a full medical check up. It has serious effects on the kidneys and the heart. I am in shock at that amount of pills per day.

 

[customs]

Swilow, sorry I should have clarified. 1300mg was what I needed to maintain the habit without being sick. The four boxes (1800mg) was what I needed to get any feeling from it. I've read codeine has a ceiling dose but I never noticed it until I built up a tolerance. I maintained myself on 1300mg for about six months.

Customs, I've been told by my GP to use paracetamol rather than ibuprofen for chronic pain. The reason being that ibuprofen and other NSAIDs are linked to all sort of nasty stomach and intestinal issues like ulcers and bleeding. I've never tried to CWE ibuprofen so I don't know how well it works but paracetamol is much easier on the stomach. The issue with paracetamol is that you can easily overdose and overload your liver. It produces a toxic compound that can throw you into acute liver failure quickly so if you fuck up your CWE, you're in big trouble. That being said, I had days where I went to a dark place, stupidly skip CWE because I didn't care if I lived or died and took 80-90 pills throughout the day. I've had extensive liver testing done and luckily my liver was unharmed- they called it a 'miracle' but both drugs carry their own separate risks. Stay safe

Yeh - it seems from the post just above there's another one of us who hasn't had any serious adverse stomach complications. I've dosed 30-45 N+ (12.8mg codeine/200mg ibu) for the past 6 years, on and off before that. No adverse affect other than the obvious occasional indigestion/direct result of consuming that much ibuprofen in a day if I go over 45. Can't be good, hoping my day of reckoning doesn't come before my day of abstinence, hah.

I travel daily between Sydney and Melbourne and have been sourcing my OTC codeine in both cities for 8 + years. I've found that there is a big difference in attitude between Vic pharmacists and NSW. Lately, Vic chemists are getting real tough. I can only think of 4 or 5 chemists out of my previous round of 30+ which don't ask for ID now, while in NSW it's a lot easier to get OTC codeine without ID.

Hahah - word. NZ is still pretty lax on it. I still love doing the 'fen tours - got my character down. I had surgery on my hip about 7 months ago - 4 years ago, hah. One pharmacy close to me allows me 5x 30 packs a week, hugely sweet.

 

[hotgirls.jpg.exe]

Yeh - it seems from the post just above there's another one of us who hasn't had any serious adverse stomach complications. I've dosed 30-45 N+ (12.8mg codeine/200mg ibu) for the past 6 years, on and off before that. No adverse affect other than the obvious occasional indigestion/direct result of consuming that much ibuprofen in a day if I go over 45. Can't be good, hoping my day of reckoning doesn't come before my day of abstinence, hah.



Hahah - word. NZ is still pretty lax on it. I still love doing the 'fen tours - got my character down. I had surgery on my hip about 7 months ago - 4 years ago, hah. One pharmacy close to me allows me 5x 30 packs a week, hugely sweet.

Ibuprofen didn't cause me any trouble for years until one day, bam, stomach ulcer out of nowhere. Fucking intensely painful. My dosages were in the 'recommended' range, although I did use it daily for a long time which you're not meant to do. It's better now, so long as I don't take ibuprofen too often.

Any pharmacists who may be reading this thread - if medassist shows that I'm buying a pack every 3-4 weeks, is that going to raise any alarm bells? I try to limit myself but it's hard if you're a woman. You use one pack for period pain per month (or less if you have a shitty cycle like me) and, what, you're not allowed any more than that? It's a bit rubbish. I had one place refuse to sell me N+ once and tried to give me voltaren instead - because that's so much better for you right? Last time I took voltaren I felt like I'd been shot in the stomach. I try to stick to panadeine extra for that reason but some places get quite iffy about selling that - I have less issue getting nurofen plus. Which is stupid because ibuprofen is demonstrably less good for you.

 

[Iskoh]

Hey all, just a warning to anyone whose still addicted to codeine: they're making all codeine containing medications prescription only from Feb 1 2018 in Australia. The pharmacists came up with Medassist in order to prevent this from happening, they felt making codeine prescription only would unnecessarily clog up doctors with patients needing mild pain relief for things like toothaches etc. So I don't know if they'll continue to use medassist or not over the next year given this decision. My suspicion is that pharmacies that don't currently have Medassist probably won't bother getting it since the main reason for having it in the first place is gone. It's a shame chemists don't offer their own taper programs for codeine addicts, I think making pharmacists more approachable regarding this kind of stuff is a good thing and will help a lot of people who struggle with this problem.

 

[smokedup]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-...'t-be-available-over-the-counter-2018/8133996

So, I wonder if this means the 8,12 and 15 mg preparations with ibuprofen/paracetamol will be eradicated, therefore leaving only fortes. Or, will all these be available at the doctors discretion. Might grab some packets as artifacts for what was a much better system of codeine dispensing.

Im adamant this will increase doctor shopping and graduation to stronger preparations.

 

[Verybuffed]

Will be interesting to see what happens to cold and flu tablets too. My pharmacist doesn't record my details as a codeine purchase when I buy them.

 

[JessFR]

Hey all, just a warning to anyone whose still addicted to codeine: they're making all codeine containing medications prescription only from Feb 1 2018 in Australia. The pharmacists came up with Medassist in order to prevent this from happening, they felt making codeine prescription only would unnecessarily clog up doctors with patients needing mild pain relief for things like toothaches etc. So I don't know if they'll continue to use medassist or not over the next year given this decision. My suspicion is that pharmacies that don't currently have Medassist probably won't bother getting it since the main reason for having it in the first place is gone. It's a shame chemists don't offer their own taper programs for codeine addicts, I think making pharmacists more approachable regarding this kind of stuff is a good thing and will help a lot of people who struggle with this problem.

This is bad news all around for almost everyone.

Less money for the pharmacists. The addicts will either suffer or likely switch to harder drugs in many cases. The people with legit pain will have to go to doctors which is a very hit and miss proposal. The only people who might at all benefit from this are ignorant people taking way too much paracetamol unaware of the danger who will now likely have to seek medical professionals. Sucks for everyone who are addicted to them.

 

[Nortika]

This really pisses me off, for multiple reasons. I cant believe they got it through.