Harm Reduction Has anyone successfully removed the caffeine from codeine tablets?

[Seattle_Stranger]

There are 5 million threads on CWE's and codeine. However I have not found a single one where someone claims to have successfully removed the caffeine from them. There is plenty of speculation, guesses and suggestions, however I haven't seen a single post that blatantly states "I removed the caffeine, I do this all the time, here's how I did it:"

I'm probably going to try the activated charcoal (Brita) filter method tonight. I'll report on if it works or not. Hopefully someone else has some worthy input before then.

So, does anyone have a tried-and-true method to removing the caffeine from codeine pills? Has anyone tried the charcoal method? Any success with other methods?

Thanks!

 

[cybertool]

theres no caffeine in codeine theres tylenol

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

 

[cybertool]

ive never seen caffine in codeine in my life

 

[paranoid android]

ive never seen caffine in codeine in my life

Caffeine is in various forms of codeine such as Tylenol#1's, 2's and 3's. AC&C's also contain 15mg's of codeine.

You can buy the 300mg APAP/15mg caffeine/8mg codeine or 375mg aspirin/15mg caffeine/8mg's of codeine OTC in Canada which is probably why the OP is asking about this.

 

[doppelganga196]

The Brita water filter method you say?

We have one of those here at home & i've often wondered what the resulting solution would be like if poured through...i always imagined you'd lose a lot of codeine.

 

[WatMyConditionIsIn]

heroinhelper.com has a great method

1 crush pills
2 wet coffee filter piece inside front of 10ml oral syrimge
3 pour powder into syringe
4 add 3-4ml cold water
5 push water thru with syringe plunger into container
6 do as wish with solution (NO IV!!!!)

basically u exploit caffeine/codeine solubility and end up removing a high amount of caffeine

 

[GordanMilky]

I've seen some threads of it. Also a link http://www.heroinhelper.com/curious/chemistry/222.shtml
Ive tried that method with aspirin/codeine/caffeine and it didnt work, maybe with apap it would be different. The water didnt evaporate at all.
It says to put 500 ml of 31 degrees Celsius with 100 pills, i used 25 pills so used around 120 ml of water.
I was speculating that maybe dont worry about waiting for the water to evaporate like it says? The caffeine/aspirin would sit at the bottom while the codeine is in the very soluble water(Unless its the other way around)? Thus transferring the water but leaving the stuff at the bottom might work? (Also put the liquid through a coffee filter and put the glump on a coffee filter and squeeze the liquid out).

If its the other way around and the codeine is in the bottom, then get rid of the liquid and use the bottom stuff?

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

ive never seen caffine in codeine in my life

Hehe sorry about the facepalm, couldn't help myself.

There is caffeine in nearly every OTC codeine product these days. It's to deter abuse.

I've seen some threads of it. Also a link http://www.heroinhelper.com/curious/chemistry/222.shtml
Ive tried that method with aspirin/codeine/caffeine and it didnt work, maybe with apap it would be different. The water didnt evaporate at all.
It says to put 500 ml of 31 degrees Celsius with 100 pills, i used 25 pills so used around 120 ml of water.
I was speculating that maybe dont worry about waiting for the water to evaporate like it says? The caffeine/aspirin would sit at the bottom while the codeine is in the very soluble water(Unless its the other way around)? Thus transferring the water but leaving the stuff at the bottom might work? (Also put the liquid through a coffee filter and put the glump on a coffee filter and squeeze the liquid out).

If its the other way around and the codeine is in the bottom, then get rid of the liquid and use the bottom stuff?

I've read that caffeine and codeine are similarly soluble, hence why they're hard to separate. The Brita filter way might work, however it may filter out the codeine as well.

The one about forcing the water through the coffee filter with the syringe, I don't understand how that works because people filter caffeine straight through a coffee filter every day, don't they? Is it the actual force behind the syringe that somehow causes that caffeine to not pass through the filter?

I was really hoping someone would have experience with a particular method that they can verify works.

 

[DooMMooD]

Charcoal wash I believe its called. Powdered charcoal, or powdered carbon. Somethin like that. You filter it through and it removes caffeine.

 

[Seattle_Stranger]

Charcoal wash I believe its called. Powdered charcoal, or powdered carbon. Somethin like that. You filter it through and it removes caffeine.

Yeah that's the Brita filter method. Only problem with this is it might remove the codeine too. I'll have to give it a shot when I get a chance and post some real results.

Anyone else have a method they use?

 

[sekio]

There's no good way if you don't have solvents. I think the easiest way is to wash it with chloroform or dichloromethane which will dissolve the caffeine but not the codeine phsophate.

Charcoal filtration will remove the codeine too (unfortunately).

Caffeine is added to T1's in canada for the sole reason to make it impossible to get a nice buzz off the CWE broth you extract. Sorry guys, but I'm closing this because it's been asked about a million times and already the thread is pretty fail. Anyone serious enough to extract pure codeine base out will know how to do so, and anyone at home won't have access to the proper tools to do it right.