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  • Trip Reports Moderator: Xorkoth

(Codeine/400mg) Experienced - A very, very worthy substitute

danceofdays

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 29, 2009
Messages
357
I submitted this to the Erowid vault too but I feel like posting it here as well might be beneficial to some people.

After maintaining a daily oxycodone/hydromorphone/morphine habit for eight months, I decided enough was enough (running out of money was definitely a factor) and quickly tapered down to nothing over a few days. The withdrawal sucked, and while I resisted the temptation to use for a good month or so, the cravings became too hard to deal with. Figuring a weak opiate was a far better option than a strong one, I bought a bottle of AC&C, a Canadian OTC preparation containing 8mg codeine phosphate, 15mg caffeine and 300mg aspirin per pill. Since perfecting my extraction method, I've been using codeine 3-5 times a week and have had no urge whatsoever to go back to harder opiates. I don't suffer any withdrawal symptoms on the days I don't use it.

I originally stumbled upon this tek somewhere online and, through various trials, have modified it to make it as fast and brainless as possible. Using this technique you can get somewhere between a gram and a gram and a half of relatively pure codeine phosphate for $8, one 200 count bottle. You'll have to bear with me when it comes to describing the syringe, I don't know the technical terms for any of that stuff.

INGREDIENTS:
- one 200ct bottle of generic AC&C tablets (I use the Stanley brand from a Rexall-affiliated pharmacy. "Life" brand pills from Shopper's Drug Mart work too, really well actually, but are also quite expensive. when I tried with the Safeway generics, it didn't work, so shop around for the good ones). they NEED to be AC&C, Tylenol #1s won't work.
- one 30cc oral syringe
- paper towel
- a sink
- one small container for liquids (like a shot glass or small prescription bottle)
- one larger container for liquids (like a small cup)
- [optional] a Magic Bullet

PROCEDURE:
- take a shot glass or washed out pill bottle and fill it with cold tap water. throw that shit in the freezer, by the time you take it out ~15 minutes later it should be just starting to form an icy layer on top.
- grind up the pills into a fine dust. I use a Magic Bullet blender to pulverize the entire bottle at once, but I used to just go at 'em with a rock hammer until they were all ground up and it worked fine. make sure it's all finely ground, no chunks.
- take a 1.5x1.5in square of paper towel and fold it in half twice to make a smaller square. moisten it with the sink.
- remove the plunger from the syringe and use any stick-like instrument to poke the paper towel square down to the bottom of the syringe, creating a porous plug between the soon-to-be-contents and the opening.
- carefully pour approximately 20 pills worth of powder into the barrel of the syringe, on top of the paper towel. this should fill about 10-15cc worth of the barrel. you can use anywhere from 15-25 pills, making sure to adjust the amount water of accordingly.
- gently tap the syringe a few times by letting it fall in your loose grip about an inch onto a flat surface, to settle the contents. the same way you'd pack a cone joint. this should leave the top of the powder at about the 8-12cc mark on the side of the syringe. don't compress it too much or the extraction WILL NOT WORK. six or eight taps is enough.
- this next step needs to be done as one fluid process. while holding the syringe upright (exit hole facing downwards) over top of your larger collection container, pour about 5cc of cold water from the shot glass into the barrel of the syringe. it will sit on top of the powder layer, but will start seeping into it quickly. right after you pour the water in, reinsert the plunger into the top of the syringe and start squeezing the water through the powder and out into the larger container. keep the syringe upright the entire time. the first few drops might "sizzle" a little but they should turn clear after 5-10 drops. after maybe 60 drops have gone through, they will start to look white and opaque and start bubbling and sizzling as they come out of the syringe. stop collecting at this point.

You should, at this point, have a container with about 1/6 shot of water in it. Dissolved in that water is (hopefully) the vast majority of the original codeine (160mg), a tiny amount of caffeine (<50mg), and no aspirin. The reason this works is because the aspirin isn't soluble in cold water at all, and while caffeine is, you can't fit that much in such a small amount of water. The solubility of caffeine in 25 degree water is 22mg/ml and it goes down as the water gets colder. Since you're only using ~5ml of water, the most caffeine that could fit in there is about 100mg, and that's if you fuck around and don't use COLD water (it should be icy cold). Shoot that shit down and prepare for the worst taste your mouth has ever experienced. If 160mg isn't enough to float your boat, repeat the entire process again to get 320mg. I usually do two extractions like this and take 320mg, which feels more like somewhere between 200 and 300 (you're bound to lose a little codeine, but it's better than nothing). I've tried 480mg twice, the first time I had a histamine reaction and was extremely itchy and hot, but high enough that it wasn't that uncomfortable. Second time I popped 25mg of diphenhydramine half an hour after taking the codeine and just got really high. The first time I did this it took about 20 minutes. Now that I'm good at it, it takes about 5 minutes per 20 pill extraction.

By the way, it really seems like the second/third codeine highs of the day are different, if that's what you're into. Not as warm and comfortable, more analgesic.
 
I actually think codeine is an under appreciated drug.

While it's not very potent, short lived and causes more itching than other opiates, I actually find it subjectively quite nice. Perhaps it is just the power of suggestion, but I always found the natural opiates to have a certain warm, unforced feeling to the euphoria compared with the semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids (even though the intoxication is more pronounced with the (semi)synthetics, it's more of a bland, generic CNS depressant feeling for me). While it's not as good as morphine, I would actually pick 250mg of codeine over an equivilant dosage of oxycodone, hydrocodone or buprenorphine (The higher relative potency of preparations containing these drugs makes this not really apply to the real world though. You would need a lot of codeine to equal an 80mg Oxycontin or 8mg Suboxone).
 
^^I agree with you about Codeine being an under appreciated opiate. Too bad here in the states it is sch. 3 just like hydrocodone.
 
Codeine is schedule III? It's available OTC (behind the counter in pharmacies) in some states. Maybe scheduling differs based on whether it's mixed with another pain killer?

Anyhoo, I also love codeine and prefer it over poppies--my only other option. The effects are almost identical to hydrocodone for me, and it's not as likely to cause dizziness/nausea. Never experienced itching or any other side effects from it myself.
 
Codeine is schedule III? It's available OTC (behind the counter in pharmacies) in some states. Maybe scheduling differs based on whether it's mixed with another pain killer?

Anyhoo, I also love codeine and prefer it over poppies--my only other option. The effects are almost identical to hydrocodone for me, and it's not as likely to cause dizziness/nausea. Never experienced itching or any other side effects from it myself.

Wow I have never heard of that before....of course I'm down here in Texas so we probably don't have it OTC. I was talking about tylenol 3 and tylenol 4 which are the only two pills with codeine I have taken.
 
Wow I have never heard of that before....of course I'm down here in Texas so we probably don't have it OTC. I was talking about tylenol 3 and tylenol 4 which are the only two pills with codeine I have taken.
Codeine scheduling in the US is a little complex (as with many drugs). I'll copy and paste some relevant information from wikipedia, including it's OTC status in the NSFW brackets below.
NSFW:
In the United States, codeine is regulated by the Controlled Substances Act. It is a Schedule II controlled substance for pain-relief products containing codeine alone or more than 90 mg per dosage unit. Tablets of codeine in combination with aspirin or acetaminophen (paracetamol/Tylenol) made for pain relief are listed as Schedule III; and cough syrups are Schedule III or V, depending on formula. The acetaminophen/codeine pain-relief elixir (trade name Tylenol Elixir with Codeine) is a Schedule V controlled substance.[30]

Preparations for cough or diarrhea containing small amounts of codeine in combination with two or more other active ingredients are Schedule V in the US, and in some states may be dispensed in amounts up to 4 fl. oz. per 48 hours (one or two states set the limit at 4 fl. oz. per 72 hours) without a prescription. Schedule V specifically consigns the product to state and local regulation beyond certain required record-keeping requirements (a dispensary log must be maintained for two years in a ledger from which pages cannot easily be removed and/or are pre-numbered, and the pharmacist must ask for a picture ID such as a driving licence) and also maintain controlled substances in the closed system at the root of the régime intended by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970; the codeine in these products was a Schedule II substance when the company making the Schedule V product acquired it for mixing up the end-product.

In locales where dilute codeine preparations are non-prescription, anywhere from very few to perhaps a moderate percentage of pharmacists will sell these preparations without a prescription. However, many states have their own laws that do require a prescription for Schedule V drugs. The December 2008 issue of The Bulletin of the National Codeine OTC Lobby (Vol. XVIII, No. 4) listed 12 states with some kind of OTC access to codeine, noting that small independent pharmacies are the most likely to have it
The Controlled Substances Act is pretty poorly written in my opinion. It seems to take a somewhat arbitrary approach to scheduling and it's blatantly contradictory in some areas. For example, THC is a both a schedule I and schedule III substance. It's schedule I except when it's in prescription form and called dronabinol. This is clearly contradictory as schedule I substances are defined as having no medicinal value, but schedule III are (but also have an abuse potential that is lesser than schedule II substances). GHB is also listed in both schedules I and III (they call it sodium oxybate when it's a schedule III prescription). I won't even get into the arbitrary scheduling of some things. You can tell the CSA is the brainchild of politicians and not scienticians.
 
^ This. Thanks for the info. I was looking it up the other day but got confused and gave up...

I've never personally gotten codeine OTC but have heard that Cheratussin AC cough syrup can be obtained that way in some places. Kind of crazy considering that several states are about to make pseudoephedrine prescription-only again. It's f@cking PSEUDOEPHEDRINE! Ugh.

On another note, I should be getting 80 codeine phosphate pills (30 mg.) with no APAP next week and am super stoked. I'm guessing from the excerpt that pure codeine pills would be Schedule II then? Yikes :(
 
This thread is old but no places like walmart in my state have OTC codeine but u got get 4oz bottles of nasty cherry tasting codeine 10mg every ml or 5ml I don't rem its been since last summer I've got only reason I get is all the dope dealers want to have their styrofoam cup with codeine and I get 100mgs a day of promethazine green hi tek refill every three days so got lean out the mutha cause I've had major car wreak an open heart surgery been on opiates since a teen then dr's got me strung out 140mgs methadone 14 ten mg tabs a day three oxy 30 mg Imm release 90 mgs a day 3 30s I've been switched to fent hydro for break thru I had a kid an got put on subutex 16 mgs a day it works great for pain an only bad part I hadn't had b sick for yrs but I had go days an days before he would give the buprenorphine cause of the methadone so long acting if was just oxy or dope u can start a lot sooner so no just benzos an subutex no illegal stuff
 
I should say I did get the syrup form of promethazine I stopped getting that also u have a child that u raising on your own a lot of things will change never thought see the day when subutex an benzos where it
 
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