Pharmacology - Expired liquid Morphine

[BrainMelt]

Swim aquired 1ml(10mg) of pure morphine sulfate. Its in liquid form, in a sealed glass vial, straight from the source. The expiration date is 3/08. Is this still usable? If so, is there a way swim can turn it into powder form?

[On The Nod]

Research SWIM's performed before indicates the liquid would be perfectable safe and still of same strength. If its in liquid form its intended to be drank or IV'd if SWIY wants to turn it to powder SWIM suggests you research using a search engine as pretty sure that procedure can be done but don't know how..

[Solinari]

That date March 08, i would guess it would be OK to use still, i would of thought it would take at least a couple of years for anything to happen to most medicines (apart from those which require certain conditions of course). The thing with morphine is it's pretty much natural and as far as i know it can't degrade in to anything else and if it can then it suspect it would take a long time after expiration.

The other question is what route is this meant for and is it a sealed, sterile ampoule of morphine? It is possible for it to be "oramorph" which is an oral preparation but at 10mg/ml it seems more likely to be an intravenous/intramuscular preparation. If needles are simply not an option then the best thing to do with it is rectal administration, i know i know, it sounds very unpleasant but it really is the best thing to do with it after its intended use (if it is in fact an IV preparation).

I doubt there is a way to turn this in to a powder form, and even if it could be done it's a very small amount of powder and would simply appear as residue and small amounts at that.

Oral bioavailability of morphine is rather low, and next to rectal it can be as low as half.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good advice

[On The Nod]

Hi, this qoute may help, its a method used to turn a liquid morphine soloution from the opium plant to a salt(solid)-

From this point, some manufacturers may proceed directly to step 3. Ideally, however, the crude morphine base is purified by dissolution in dilute hydrochloric (or sufuric) acid, forming a solution of morphine hydrochloride (or sulfate). Activated charcoal is added, and the solution is heated and filtered hot through a fine cloth. The filtration is repeated several times, removing the charcoal and colored impurities with it. The filtrate may be dried in the sun to leave behind morphine hydrochloride, a fine white powder if purification is complete, which may be pressed into 1 kg bricks and transferred for further processing at a remote site. Alternatively, ammonium hydroxide may be added to the morphine HCl solution (or re-dissolved morphine HCl), precipitating morphine base, filtered and dried to form a granular solid (8).

[Comodo]

Hi, SWIM had skin pop a few ampules that was 40 years old . And it was still quite active, 20mg ampules the liquid was light brown in color. So SWIM presumes that its ok if if the date has expired "just" a few months

Reputation Comments on this post:

unsure of point

[amadeusstoner]

A friend of one of my friends knows a RN (registered nurse). She said that she was taught that the expiration dates were definite, but this only means of course that the medication starts decreasing in effectiveness at that point. (she also said that her medical doctor told her that the expiration dates were only to push more sales of meds which is probably true lol). Basically, whether the effect of the expired morphine is full or somewhat diminished, it should still do something. The only real worry i would have would be bacteria growing inside the solution being that it is a liquid. As long as it was properly kept in its container though it should be fine.

[Solinari]

From what i have read most medications that do not require certain environmental conditions and will last years in the first place, will be perfectly effective months past their expiration date and that only a few medications would degrade in to something that could be potentially toxic, i think it's their effectiveness that can degrade more than anything. Of course i couldn't say what the medications that could degrade in to something toxic are, so it is definitely a good idea to check and see if it's a possibility.

I am not so sure about 40 year old ampules, seems a bit too em, mature to be considered for use, that said i do wonder what my fiend would do if he found several 40 year old sealed ampules of morphine.

[BrainMelt]

It is a sealed ampoule for IV. Can Swim just drink it? Injection is out of the question.

Thanks for the replys so far.

Reputation Comments on this post:

saying no to iv

[On The Nod]

SWIM thinks one can drink the morphine safely, however SWIY needs to ensure theres enough to get high if taken orally..There are other ways of taking morphine liquid, SWIY can use a eye dropper or a syringe and drop it on the inside of their nose,and let it be absorbed, this works well..

[BrainMelt]

Swim ended up squirting the morphine up his nose. He felt relaxed. That was about it.

[Solinari]

It's not much there can't be too much expected from 10mg. Certainly, in a opiate intolerant person, taking by its intended route (ie intravenous) then the effects would have been felt then again it's not an unusual therapeutic dose probably given for the larger among us in a hospital setting.