Don't do it! There, that's out of the way....had to be said....again. That is the simple version of the following contents of this reply. Please read the rest!
You aren't going to get anything over-the-counter that you can enjoy long-term safely. Codiene is really the only over-the-counter narcotic you can get and it contains acetaminophen. As a new user, a dose or 6 daily won't really do any damage but soon you will build a tolerance and need more to feel it. That will lead to more acetominophen ingestion. At a certain point, not very long after you start, if you use regularly, longer if you use less-frequently, you will reach the tipping point where you will need to ingest such a large amount of Codeine that you will be ingesting far too much acetaminophen. Serious damage to the liver can occur fairly quickly when this happens, and it WILL happen if you take it regularly. (4 grams, or 4,000 mg. is the toxic limit BTW.). This is what the above commenter meant by CWE...Cold Water Extraction. I will not go into detail but it is basically the tedious process of filtering the acetominophen from the codeine so you don't ingest a poisonous amount. Pain in the ass and not sustainable long-term, realistically.
You may think you can do it for a while and stop before it gets out of control but at a certain point, (EVERYONE is different so it cannot be predicted when), even if you don't become mentally addicted to it, you WILL become physically dependent on it. It happens without you noticing and once it does, you are trapped. Your body will NEEDS to have it at least once a day (in large, unsafe amounts by this point). When, not if, you become physically dependent, your body will force you to take dangerous amounts or it will go into withdrawl. Narcotic withdrawls are EXTREMELY EXCRUCIATING! Mentally and physically they have been described by some as the most painful nightmare they have ever endured. I won't go into detail on the subject of withdrawls but I do strongly encourage you to check into it. Please don't just read the standard textbook definitions but look at the dark side here on the forums, or Google and read personal accounts of it. That will give you the full in-depth truth as much as possible without experiencing it for yourself. Be grateful that others have gone before and left a record of their experience(s). It may save your life. Many millions of people take narcotics in very expensive, very dangerous amounts every day just to keep the withdrawls at bay because they are so TERRIBLE! And for no other reason than that. Many users also take those doses because they like it mentally so much they cannot control the cravings for it, and therefore cannot stop, even though they DESPERATELY want nothing more than to be narcotic free. Some to the point where it has become so bad and depressing that they commit suicide!
These are just a few risk factors. I haven't even touched on the fact that once you become either physically and/or mentally addicted and can no longer sustain your habit with codeine safely or cost-effectively, you WILL progress to more dangerous and much more expensive drugs. Once codeine is out of the equation, you will start buying stronger, and ILLEGAL drugs to keep your mental addiction and/or physical dependency satisfied. First it might be Norco, then Oxycodone, then Morphine, then Fentanyl, but it will eventually almost always be HEROIN.
If you are female, the outlook is even dimmer. I personally know more than one woman and one very young girl, (17 to be exact), that either has sex with or performs other sex acts for at least one person, sometimes more, on a DAILY basis in order to keep herself from feeling unwell. There is also a component to her doing this that is solely to help her forget and feel better about the degrading things that drugs make her do. You may think and swear that will never be you but if you chose to turn toward that pill, it could happen easily. Very quickly you lower your standards and justify actions that once repulsed you, just to get high or not get sick. It happens millions of times all over the world on a daily basis to people from all walks of life, all background, and all education levels. From poor teens from the ghetto who had very little chance of ever escaping, all the way to highly educated and well-bred doctors, lawyers, and stock brokers, just to name a few. People whom were raised in terrible homes with childhood sexual, physical, and mental abuse. People who were raised in loving homes with happy childhoods and bright futures, and everyone in between. Soccer mom's, politicians, and barbers, school teachers, police officers, and grocery store cashiers, welder and soldiers, elderly women and men, teens with their whole lives ahead of them, judges, psychiatrists and, addiction Counselors, criminals, actors and national heroes Little League coaches and Nurses. No one is immune...NO ONE...not even you.
A little example for you. Please read it carefully and slowly and take it very seriously. The following is an almost exact play-by-play of MILLIONS of people's lives. Each one may vary slightly but, in the end, they are ALL the same. Please read it every day if you must. Memorize it. Print it. Carry it in your wallet if you have to. Hang it on your wall. Hell, hang it on your friends walls, your brother's, anyone you care about. It isn't the greatest piece of writing ever produced but it's the content, not the quality that counts in this instance. It could be the difference between life and.....
You start with small doses of heroin, most likely snorting it. Then it gets to the point where you need to snort so much heroin that it is no longer financially possible for you to continue. You learn, through a new addict friend, or dealer, that IV heroin is much more cost-effective than snorting. You vow, just as you vow now that you'll never become addicted, that you will never use a needle.... EVER. Then, one day, you run out of money. You already sold your car, lost your home to foreclosure because you chose buying the drugs your body and mind crave over paying your mortgage. You now live in a shitty little apartment anyway, so you justify selling your furniture, your belongings, your great-grandmother's treasured wedding ring, for money to support your habit. You have to make a choice. Either do 1 last line, then anxiously wait for the excruciating withdrawls to start, or buy the heroin and have your new junkie friend loan you a syringe and help you inject for the first time. Out of desperation. Just theses few times, until you get your next welfare check or until can sell your food stamps to get enough dope to go back to snorting. You lost your job because you were too busy trying to find the money for dope to go to work, and because you called out "sick " so many times because you were in withdrawls and couldn't get out of bed. It's justified now that you have no other choice. You've just lowered your standards in that instant to accept the fact that it is the only Way to feel ok, therefore it's alright. just this once, or twice, or seventeen times. Since you are now a serious addict with a very costly, very dangerous, and very illegal habit that you MUST maintain, you love it and never look back. It feels SO GOOD and saves so much money! It's a miracle, and it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be. It's the only way! Why haven't you been doing it all along!?
Don't forget that this whole time, every day, your tolerance and need INCREASES. Your family stopped talking to you a while ago and your mother cries every night in secrecy for the child she once knew. You are so depressed with the person you have become that you want to die, but can't bring yourself to waste enough dope to Finish yourself off. It's common practice now steal from your grandmother, lie to you parents, and beg and borrow money from relatives and friends under the guise of a flat tire you can't afford to fix, or a vet bill that suddenly popped up, so many times without repaying it that your family no longer sees you or allows you into their homes. Your brother lost his car because he put it up for your bail the last time you got arrested for shoplifting, and will no longer speak to you because you chose meeting up with your dealer over appearing in court on time. Your sister wrote you off when you stole her precious mother's ring to pawn it for drugs. Your cousin shut you out when you emptied her daughter's piggy bank during last year's family Christmas party. They have given up on you and, although they hope the old you will come back someday, they have already grieved for you as if you have died.
Your new family is one you can relate to. Criminals, thieves, and junkies, just like you. They know you. They understand you, they accept you just like you are. To them, you are family too because you are the only one that understands them and will allow them in your life. They have lost everything and everyone that ever meant anything to them, just like you have, so your next fix and those that sell it to you, or do it with you, become the only pitiful and depressing family they have left, just like they are to you.
One day, you wake up in a strange grungy apartment with a needle still hanging from a your arm, track marks all over your body, and a face staring back at you from the mirror that you don't even recognize. Gaunt, pale, hollow, with eyes as flat and lifeless as old pennies. For a fleeting second you cry inside for the person you once were and the life and love that you once had. Then you turn away and slide a dirty dull needle into your arm, a flash of crimson, a taste of metal, and are embraced by the darkness that awaits in the golden brown liquid. You are gone...the person you were is no longer and the spark, the potential, the joy and life you once had before you disappears as you slip into a cold and empty nothingness. You disappear forever. Either the cold black hand of death takes you or your soul is snuffed out. They are one-in-the-same. A precious life, your life, so full of potential and with such a bright and joyful future, disappears like it never happened, and is gone with the push of a $.25 plastic plunger crusted with your own dried blood. Don't do it....please. Take the advice of those of us who are where you will be if you do this. Take the advice and learn from those who have gone before you.
Go outside, walk in the sunshine and dance under the moonlight. Catch snowflakes on your tongue and splash in the puddles. Visit your loved ones and friends and focus on how their laughter makes your heart feel content, and carry it with you, always. Snuggle with your dog and cuddle your purring kitten. Remember your little brother's grin, the feel of your mother's comforting hand in your's as you stroll through the park, or your father's smile, a smile that felt like coming home, as you fished in the lake when you were 7.
Remember your sloppy awkward first kiss, the way your cheeks got hot and you couldn't stifle your giggle, or your lover, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, or partner and the way they made your stomach flutter with the beat of a thousand butterfly wings when they held your hand, looked into your eyes, and said I love you for the very first time. Hug you kids and think of the day they were born. How you loved them so much before they were even born that you would have given your life the exact shining moment they took their first breath simply for them to be happy. Watch the fireworks flashing brightly, feel the soundwaves vibrate through your body, and remember how they inspired awe in you as a child.
Look at your yearbook from High School. Daydream about your secret crush, or how it will feel when you finally get the job you have been dreaming of your whole life. Imagine your graduation, the bright flashes of cameras, smiling parents, and mortarboards flying into the air as you cheer and charge into your future. Think back to the pride you felt when you bought your first old clunker car, or the day you got your license.
Now picture your life the way I just described our lives as addicts and walk in the direction that makes you feel warm and at peace. Chose your future wisely, as there is no turning back from the path of darkness. It grows and closes over behind you, leaving you nowhere to go but deeper and deeper into the black void of nothing. I hope you choose not to give up everything you can have and be for the empty waking nightmare that lies ahead if you swallow that pill and head down that dark and empty path. Walk towards the light.