Opioids Is this still safe to drink?

[narla_hotep]

Two weeks ago I was visiting my parents for the weekend and I drank some of their Hydrocodone cough syrup (the yellow kind mixed with chlorpheniramine). Without thinking i drank straight from the rim of the bottle (idiot) and I might have licked the edge of it by accident (bigger idiot). This weekend I went to visit them again and I looked at the cough syrup bottle... but I'm afraid there are bacteria growing in it or something. The liquid is slightly murkier than before, and it has lots of tiny whitish/clear specks floating in it that I can't remember being there before. (They could have been, and I didn't notice... But I doubt it.) It still smells okay though.

I'm afraid these specks are colonies of bacteria... The syrup was pretty sugary, so it makes sense for them to grow. But now I need to know, is this still safe to drink?? Not for myself, but my parents. This cough medicine is only a month old, not expired, so if one of them gets a bad cough they're definitely gonna take some. I'm afraid they will get sick afterward or even somehow know the medicine has been tampered with.

I'm kinda tempted to take one dose and use myself as a guinea pig to test for any ill-effects. But at the same time I'm disgusted by the idea of actually drinking any and I feel awful for inflicting the same thing on my poor family. Do you guys think this is still safe to drink?

EDIT: Oh and also the syrup is SLIGHTLY diluted with water. I added maybe a teaspoon of water to a nearly-full bottle when I took some, to make it look like it was the same amount as before. Don't know if that makes a difference/makes it easier for things to grow.

 

[Jackeh]

Not too sure myself but looking on the internet a few people have said it can cause contamination of a medicine, which is something I've never thought of myself. Is this cough syrup OTC or prescription? If it's OTC you could always just try buy a new bottle and replace it.

 

[crzydiamond]

Not sure if this is similar. But last summer I diluted some methadone in a take home bottle with water (was using one bottle to wean off and wanted a bigger volume of liquid to split up. Not the best idea but anyway)... After sitting over a week with tap water there were these little protozoa actually in it... YUCK ...from tap water... I've seen that happen filling a kids backyard pool n letting water sit too

Needless to say, I did not drink that last dose

 

[narla_hotep]

Unfortunately, it's a pretty hardcore prescription. Really amazing stuff. My mom only got it because she had a very bad cough that wouldn't go away for a month, plus she looked more like a typical suburban parent than a drug addict. I've had a cough that bad before, but I was never prescribed any narcotics for it...

Anyways, that story about the methadone and water sounds gross :/ I've never had any issues diluting syrups with water before (probably because I used filtered water from the fridge), but the saliva is the "wild card" here and I don't really know what to do about it.

 

[Jackeh]

I suppose one other option could be to use water purification tablets but I'm not sure if these would have any interaction with the medicine in the bottle, I think it would be likely to get rid of any contamination though.

 

[bpayne]

Sounds like it is growing mold.. also I remember when I was younger my mom use to always tell me not to drink or eat out of a container and then store it for later because your saliva contains bacteria that can grow and multiply when left in a consumable product.. I'd fess up and warn them. lol @ the wanting to test it one more time for "them" part.

 

[narla_hotep]

@bpayne: The syrup doesn't look moldy. No "fuzziness" or visible mold growing over the surface. Just tiny specks floating in it and a few on the side of the bottle itself. When I looked at the syrup today, I literally did not have any urge to drink it. If I do test it, it will only be a tiny amount and not even enough to get high. I really am worried for my parents, hard as that may be for you to believe. But I don't want to confess to drug use right off the bat like that because it will destroy any trust they ever had in me. My parents are INCREDIBLY strict... They'll pull me out of college, send me to rehab even though I'm only an occasional user, etc. It'll literally ruin my life and everything I've worked toward for my career in the future... Hopefully either I will get a cough before they do, then I can tell them the syrup looks spoiled and we should throw it away. Or maybe they'll notice on their own and throw it out before they take it.

@Jackeh: That's a good idea, but I've read a few online reviews for the tablets and apparently they change the taste of the water they are added to. Make it taste all chlorinated, yuck. My parents would definitely notice if the sweet-tasting syrup became all bitter and chemical-y.

 

[Jackeh]

I wouldn't normally like to suggest something like this then, but whereabouts is the bottle kept? Is it somewhere decently high up with a hard floor below it? If so, is there a legit reason you could have for being in the same storage space?

If so, you could try and say you were getting something else and accidentally knocked over the bottle, which proceeded to fall to the floor and smash, rendering it unusable.

This way you don't get caught out for using someones medication and your parents don't get a bacterial infection from using the medication. You may still come out worse though, after all - you've broken a prescription medication container belonging to someone else, but it's better than getting your parents sick. Do this as a kind of last available option though, you wouldn't want to go around destroying peoples' meds unnecessarily.

 

[narla_hotep]

First of all, thanks for replying to this thread multiple times and giving suggestions even though my problem isn't as bad as some other people's.

The bottle is kept pretty high off the ground, but it is inside a prescription bag inside a plastic storage box inside a cabinet that only contains my parents' medications. It would have to be some crazy accident for me to break that specific bottle, lol. Even if it fell to the ground, the box or the bag would cushion it enough to not break it. Plus, my parents have already caught me going through their medications in that cabinet and taking their painkillers about a year ago. (That was the time when they threatened to send me to rehab if they ever caught me again.) I swore it was the first and last time I had ever done that, but they were suspicious of me for months before finally beginning to trust me again.

Damn, I've been acting like some sick junkie even though I'm not physically addicted to anything. I really need to stop messing around with my parents medications completely... I mean maybe I could still break the bottle, but to be honest I don't really have the guts to do it because I'm afraid they will easily see through the lies like they did last time when they caught me.

I feel like there's nothing I can really do in this particular case but wait it out. Possibly next week during spring break I'll try a bit to see if I get sick. *gross* Do you think there are any serious health risks to this? If harmless bacteria from saliva were allowed to grow unchecked, would they become more harmful?

 

[Jackeh]

In that case, go for the purification tablets then. You've not really any other choice that doesn't involve getting either you or your parents possibly sick. If they notice a taste? Doesn't matter. They can think all they want about it but they aren't going to go "Hm, this medicine tastes a bit more bitter than I remember, someone probably added something to it". And even if they did, so what? You aren't going to get the blame for that and if you do there is nothing that can be done, I can't imagine them having the means to get proof that you've purified a solution. Deny it.

Lying isn't a good thing to do and I would not recommend getting into a situation where you would again, but so that you're not risking your parents (and your own health) I'd say just risk throwing in a purification tablet.

Before you do, check how much water they require. For example, if a tablet cleans 1000ml of water and your container is only 500ml, there shouldn't be a need to put in the full tablet, half would be adequate. Using less of the the tablet then would also (hopefully) result in a less distinctive taste.

 

[narla_hotep]

Jackeh,

Thanks for the good suggestion. The next time I came home to visit my parents, yesterday, I ended up using the water purification tablets. Because of the small volume of the bottle, I used only 1/4 of an iodine tablet, and then after 30 min, 1/2 of a neutralizing tablet (because the iodine left dark streaks in the syrup.) The color went back to normal, but after about an hour the little blobs were still there. (I guess, if it was bacteria, then they died but didn't simply "go away"). Anyways, I've done what I can, now here's hoping my mother doesn't catch my little brother's cold and try taking that cough syrup.

 

[anythingbutsober]

is it tussionex you're talking about? when i had it prescribed, i remember it having like little specks floating around in it even not messing with it at all. it's much different than codeine based cough syrups or anything over the counter. you do sound legitimately concerned about bacteria... i would not mess around with their meds again, i'm sure you've learned your lesson. it sounds like you did take a good precaution with water purification. the only thing i would add would be to not add water next time. unless you drink a crazyyy amount, it won't make a big difference. regular people don't keep obsessive tabs on how much cough syrup they have, you know?

 

[narla_hotep]

Yep, it's Tussionex. It makes me kind of relieved to hear that you noticed weird specks in yours too... I don't remember any specks being in mine before I messed with it, but it might just be that I never noticed, lol. I'm still pretty wary of drinking any more of my parents', but at least there's a chance it's not infested with bacteria.

 

[Hammilton]

I would think that all the crap in those things would prevent much bacterial growth, and even if it does they'd have no reason to suspect you of it.

 

[bmwdriver]

Seems like you blew this out of proportion a bit. Its not like your parents will take it straight from the bottle, they would pour it out measure it look at it and take it. If they don't like the way it looks they wont be taking it. I would just let it be.

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

maybe try adding a shot of liquor, mix it up, let it sit and then let the alcohol slow boil out in a water bath or just leave the alcohol in and filter it.