• 💊 OTHER DRUGS 💊 Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads 1 Notable Threads 2
    Dangerous Combos Addiction Support
    Emergency Services Benzo Guide v.1
    Addiction Stories Scary Case Studies
    Biology, Pharmacology & Drugs 101
  • Select Your Topic Then Scroll Down
    Alcohol Bupe Benzos
    Cocaine Heroin Opioids
    RCs Stimulants Misc
    Harm Reduction All Topics Gabapentinoids
    Tired of your habit? Struggling to cope?
    Want to regain control or get sober?
    Visit our Recovery Support Forums

Opioids what is considered an OD level of codeine

Inc3pti0n

Inc3pti0n

Bluelighter
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
497
Okay so i have had currently around 225mg of codeine in liquid form from CWE. I am still in a lot of pain and need to take co codamol 500/30mg, i know not to exceed 8 of these due to the amount of paracetamol. Im wondering condiering ive had 225mg of codeine, how much more i could possibly take, or what is considered an OD dose as i do not want to reach near this. Im trying to avoid harm but achieve maximum pain relief.

I cannot perform a CWE on the co codamol i have (the 500/30mg ones) as they are the capsules with the powder inside not the caplets.
 
The amount that causes OD will be different in everyone. If someone uses 1 gram of heroin a day and they try to OD on codeine it would take them probably at least a few grams of codeine to do it, if they didn't hit the codeine ceiling first.

Short answer is, we don't know. I doubt you are reaching OD levels with doses like 225mg but only you will be able to tell what a dangerous dose is.
 
falsifiedhypothesi said:
The amount that causes OD will be different in everyone. If someone uses 1 gram of heroin a day and they try to OD on codeine it would take them probably at least a few grams of codeine to do it, if they didn't hit the codeine ceiling first.

Short answer is, we don't know. I doubt you are reaching OD levels with doses like 225mg but only you will be able to tell what a dangerous dose is.
Click to expand...

Is there a way I can work it out for myself without just taking more doses. And what is the codeine ceiling by the way sorry for being a noob asking
 
Inc3pti0n said:
Okay so i have had currently around 225mg of codeine in liquid form from CWE. I am still in a lot of pain and need to take co codamol 500/30mg, i know not to exceed 8 of these due to the amount of paracetamol. Im wondering condiering ive had 225mg of codeine, how much more i could possibly take, or what is considered an OD dose as i do not want to reach near this. Im trying to avoid harm but achieve maximum pain relief.

I cannot perform a CWE on the co codamol i have (the 500/30mg ones) as they are the capsules with the powder inside not the caplets.
Click to expand...

You still should be able to CWE the capsules. Just open the capsules and dump into cold water. The same principle should apply: the codeine will dissolve into the cold water while the paracetamol/acetaminophen will mostly not dissolve. Then filter and drink.

The stuff inside the capsules is almost the same as if you just crushed up a pill. The pill just has some extra binders/fillers that help to hold it together as a pill.
 
According to some people codeine has a "ceiling dose," meaning once you hit that dose taking more will no longer result in increased effects. It's supposed to be somewhere in the 500-600mg range but i've heard of people taking higher doses and getting greater effects.

There's no sure fire way to test your tolerance without taking the drug. You have to gauge how you feel and determine whether you can take more or not. Keep in mind the longer you have been on opiates the higher your tolerance will get and the quicker it will build up.

There are opiate equivalency calculators online that you can use to equate doses between opiates. Let's say you had a tolerance of 20mg of hydrocodone to get pain relief then you get switched to oxy and don't know where to start. You can put your dose of hydro and route of administration into the calculator, select another opiate to compare, then it will tell you what dose you should be taking to equate to 20mg of hydrocodone.

These calculators are not always 100% correct and you should always start with a dose lower then what the calculator says.
 
falsifiedhypothesi said:
According to some people codeine has a "ceiling dose,"
Click to expand...

Yeah, it takes a certain enzyme to convert the codeine to morphine and I think it caps at under 200 mg of codeine in a 24 hour period, but it's been years since I read anything on the subject tho.
Plus the amount of converted codeine isn't a straight convert in mgs of morphine either...i think.
That said, I believe Codeine is pretty hard to die from for that reason. Not saying you CAN'T, just not that easily...?
 
Appreciate the replies here guys. Makes me feel more comfortable now and peace of mind. I just seem to have quickly developed a high tolerance to codeine so was curious as to the level which would be cause for concern but i think this has cleared things up.

Many thanks.
 
MDPV_Psychosis said:
You still should be able to CWE the capsules. Just open the capsules and dump into cold water. The same principle should apply: the codeine will dissolve into the cold water while the paracetamol/acetaminophen will mostly not dissolve. Then filter and drink.

The stuff inside the capsules is almost the same as if you just crushed up a pill. The pill just has some extra binders/fillers that help to hold it together as a pill.
Click to expand...

I made a thread in regards to this to ask if it was possible but was told the opposite so i didnt do it. Are you sure it will still work as i dont have a lot of the capsules left now. Just around 20
 
Inc3pti0n said:
I made a thread in regards to this to ask if it was possible but was told the opposite so i didnt do it. Are you sure it will still work as i dont have a lot of the capsules left now. Just around 20
Click to expand...

I assume it should work but I don't know this for sure so don't take my word for it. The people who replied to your other thread may know first hand that it doesn't work. I've never even seen a codeine capsules beyond in internet photos.

I figured the capsules just contain codeine and paracetamol/acetaminophen and if so then it will work. They may also contain some inert filler as well but that shouldnt matter.

Now it's possible the caps contain some antiabuse filler that prevents a cwe from working properly but I've never heard of such a thing in codeine capsules. Would be interested to hear if anyone knows for sure.
 
Guys, codeine is one of the most toxic opioids in high amounts. It is unlikely one could reach an overdose amount before succumbing to the toxic effects of it - like your liver shutting down possibly.

I don't know enough about what happens when you reach the toxic limit from codeine, but it has got to be much more unpleasant than a straight up OD like you would have on heroin or fentanyl.
 
LesFleursDuMal said:
Guys, codeine is one of the most toxic opioids in high amounts. It is unlikely one could reach an overdose amount before succumbing to the toxic effects of it - like your liver shutting down possibly.

I don't know enough about what happens when you reach the toxic limit from codeine, but it has got to be much more unpleasant than a straight up OD like you would have on heroin or fentanyl.
Click to expand...

My reply above applies to your comment.
 
I think it would be quite difficult to have a fatal OD, barring aspiration on your own vomit, from codeine alone.

With that said.

"Reported Fatal Dose: In adults, ingestion of 7 to 14 mg/kg may cause death. ... Ingestion of more than 1 mg/kg of codeine in children is capable of producing symptoms, and doses more than 5 mg/kg have caused respiratory arrest."

CODEINE - National Library of Medicine HSDB Database
https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+3043

Which seems to say as little as 250mg could be fatal. Outside of a few outliers, I think there would need to be some contributing factors for doses of less than 1000mg to be fatal. Apparently the "ceiling" mostly applies to recreational effects.
 
Oddly enough this happened to me about 2 weeks ago!
A couple of weeks after leaving a 28 day rehab I relapsed and used codeine for 6 days (32 N+ at once so ~400mg codeine a pop a day). Due to stupidity (and a bit of Pregabalin) I had ~900mg over the course of a hour on day 7.
2 hours later I was in A&E having collapsed in the street. Luckily someone (that happened to have a naloxone syringe on them) nearby had seen me stumbling around like an idiot beforehand. Some consciousness regained but took another 2 shots in the ambulance en route to the hospital to maintain consciousness (not that I remember any of this). Was on a naloxone drip overnight in hospital in HDU and discharged the next afternoon.
So in short; even when you have some tolerance built up (as I had as 400 only brought mild euphoria on day 6) codeine can be harmful to the wrong person at the wrong dose and people shouldn't discard it's OD potential because it's not one of the stronger opiates.
 
falsifiedhypothesi said:
The amount that causes OD will be different in everyone. If someone uses 1 gram of heroin a day and they try to OD on codeine it would take them probably at least a few grams of codeine to do it, if they didn't hit the codeine ceiling first.

Short answer is, we don't know. I doubt you are reaching OD levels with doses like 225mg but only you will be able to tell what a dangerous dose is.
Click to expand...

Codeine is weird though. The histamine release is really what is particularly troublesome with codeine ODs. Even with a massive tolerance to most opioids, life threatening histamine reaction can occur with as little as 400mg codeine in a lot of people.

Someone with a severe morphine dependency would probably be able to tolerate more codeine than a normal person in terms of the histamine issue, but regular old codeine can be quite the tricky drug (distinguishing it from DHC).

That said, I've known at least one BLer who took grams of codeine per day. Pretty scary from my perspective.

I almost died taking about 700mg when I had a dependency on 60mg or so of daily methadone.

I was so tolerant to the methadone I barely felt the effects of the codeine (normally 300mg of codeine and I'm happy), so silly me figured I'd be okay to push the dose of codeine past my safe limit of 300-400mg.

Not a good idea - I might have been tolerant to the effects of opioid agonists from the methadone, but I was not at all tolerant to the histamine release associated with opiates like codeine or morphine.

Long story short, after about 700mg of codeine consumed over about a 2-3hr period, the histamine reaction came out of nowhere in full force. It caused my neck to become so swollen I started choking, barely able to breath, and had to take a bunch of prednisone in the ER to avoid asphyxiating.

Pretty scary, although I definitely learned my lesson with it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
^I didn't think about that originally, that sounds like it'd be a horrible way to go. I've had really bad codeine itches before, to the point where my skin was sore for a couple days, but never so bad that my throat started to close.
 
Yes, I have had nasty itches from them as well, but when I stay at or under 300mg it's generally fine. Diphenhydramine is great to mix with codeine imo for this very reason, but it doesn't help with the histamine issue once the dosage passes a certain point (for me, about 350-400mg).

For some people, even that is pushing it though. For more people, the danger level increases very quickly over 400mg. Without a codeine specific tolerance, 400mg is a good benchmark to avoid getting too near or going over.

It amazes me when I hear about people who can tolerate 800mg doses of codeine. No judgement, just amazement and some romanticizing on my part. It's easy for me to forget it probably took them years of using codeine to get to a point they could tolerate that kind of mega dose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top