Wilson Wilson
Bluelighter
Did you guys know Oramorph (which I'm also on) is no longer a controlled drug but Pregabalin is? A doctor in a and e told me this. How the fuck does that work lol
Because when it comes to the common opiates - codeine, DHC, and morphine - whether or not they are controlled drugs under the Medicines Act depends on how high the concentration is. This is possible because when medicines are designated controlled or uncontrolled, the form of the medicine as well as the ingredient is taken into account when the law is deciding if something is controlled. This is also why drugs prepared for injection are controlled more strictly than the same drug as a regular oral pill.
But as far as opiates magically becoming uncontrolled goes, that's why you can get co-codamol 8/500 OTC for example. Codeine is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act as a class B. But under the Medicines Act, as the concentration is low, it is uncontrolled enough to qualify as OTC.
You can even get OTC morphine in a 1mg/5ml solution called J Collis Browne's Mixture but it seems to be less available than it once was. I used to get it in bloody Boots! Not so anymore, none of them stock it now but as with codeine linctus you'll find it in the odd local independent pharmacy.
This is also why codeine linctus 15mg/5ml is OTC. Because that is the maximum concentration in which you can sell codeine as an uncontrolled medicine. Which ironically is higher than the US "lean" that is dosed at 10mg/5ml, controlled, and commonly sold on the black market for a grand a bottle ?
Going back to Oramorph, that 10mg/5ml concentration is juuuuust low enough to make it schedule 5 prescription only, but this is basically uncontrolled. However Oramorph Concentrated Oral Solution 20mg/1ml is controlled due to it being much stronger. Those morphine XR pills for example MST Continus are also CD's.
Other schedule 5's include those classic dihydrocodeine 30mg pills. But the DHC Continus are controlled since they're more highly dosed, even though one of the main reasons time release pills are used is to reduce abuse potential.
Yet another demonstration of how little sense drug laws make...