Addiction - Codeine Addiction and Tolerance

[drguildo]

What would SWIY say is the maximum dose and frequency somebody could take without developing tolerance and/or addiction? I guess this varies from person to person (not sure how much though) but SWIM would be interested to hear of peoples experiences.

[Routemaster Flash]

SWIM has noticed a definite tolerance after using codeine and/or dihydrocodeine about on a roughly once per two weeks basis. Poppy tea stick knocks him on his arse, though. So it could creep up more easily than you think.

Edit: having said that, SWIM is sure he's a long way off developing either physical cravings (i.e. withdrawal symptoms) or mental cravings.

[drguildo]

Originally Posted by Routemaster Flash

SWIM has noticed a definite tolerance after using codeine and/or dihydrocodeine about on a roughly once per two weeks basis.

How much and for how long?

[Routemaster Flash]

Originally Posted by drguildo

How much and for how long?

Somewhat difficult to say, as he hasn't been keeping a log or anything...say, maybe a few months? Since the summer, maybe? With things like this it's always impossible to distinguish a purely subjective mental tolerance (just psychologically getting used to what the high feels like) and an actual physiological tolerance, i.e. SWIM's receptors binding less strongly to the morphine (or whatever) molecules. To the extent that they can be conceptually distinguished at all, SWIM guesses.

Anyway, when SWIM was starting out he remembers getting really quite high from a CWE of around 22 Paramol tablets containing 7.5mg of dihydrocodeine, so about 150mg of DHC assuming a 90% efficient extraction. But he's since done this with a whole pack of 30 pills and doesn't get as much of an effect. All the same, this could just be him having an unreliable memory of how good it felt the first time, you know?

SWIM'd love to report back in future with results of codeine/DHC CWEs but he's since come into a nice big batch of poppy pods which he finds much more worthwhile overall, to say nothing of a good deal cheaper.

[singacquiesce]

SWIM digs on painkillers. Hydrocodone specifically Even more specifically, the yellow percocet 10/500's. They are rather expensive so SWIM now and again, more so as of late, buys about ten of them and does all of them over the course of 12 days, some times one each day, sometimes two per day until he runs out.

SWIM is worried that he's beginning to lose control of his urges to take hydrocodone. It just so happens that he's midway through a 15 day supply so perhaps the timing is bad and is bugging SWIM out. But what kind of long term effects is SWIM going to suffer at this point? He's been an on and off user of hydrocodone for almost a year. SWIM knows that he doesn't want to get hooked and wants to keep it to a once-in-a-while type of thing. Does anyone have any advice for SWIM?

[cybergenesis]

I think once per fortnight sounds good, taking it at a frequency outside of the length of the withdrawal period sounds sensible.

[RoboCodeine7610]

Well swim usually takes ~160mg 4 or 5 times a week (for about 3-4months) and hasn't developed any physical dependence although he currently has a strong mental dependence to the stuff.If he goes 2-3 days without it he gets pretty irritable and nervous but he's sure these are not physical withdrawals.

He thinks this might be because of his anxiety disorder which he hasn't been prescribed anything for (doctor's an asshole) and that codeine is his replacement.So he thinks these psychological symptoms are from his anxiety disorder rather than from the codeine although he does experience a lot of cravings.

Careful, they don't call it hillbilly heroin for nothing...

[phatassone]

SWIM was doing approx. 600mg daily, tolerance and addiction build up fast, went from once a week to twice a week to daily... swim stopped and started again 4 times before falling to the grips of stronger opiates...

[cybergenesis]

Originally Posted by RoboCodeine7610

Well swim usually takes ~160mg 4 or 5 times a week (for about 3-4months) and hasn't developed any physical dependence although he currently has a strong mental dependence to the stuff.If he goes 2-3 days without it he gets pretty irritable and nervous but he's sure these are not physical withdrawals.

He thinks this might be because of his anxiety disorder which he hasn't been prescribed anything for (doctor's an asshole) and that codeine is his replacement.So he thinks these psychological symptoms are from his anxiety disorder rather than from the codeine although he does experience a lot of cravings.

Careful, they don't call it hillbilly heroin for nothing...

That dosage wouldn't be enough for serious withdrawal, but the mood effects could be real especially if you use it to alleviate your moods.

If your doctor sucks so much why don't you try another and get some valium? Swim has never had any trouble scoring valium off most doctors.

Can I ask do the tablets you take with the codeine contain paracetamol or are you doing a cold water extraction or something? Also if it contain paracetamol how much codeine and how much panadol are in each tablet? Cause obviously too much paracetamol is bad. If you were just doing panadeine tablets you would need to take 16 or so to get 160mg. With panadeine forte it would be about 5.

[RoboCodeine7610]

Well, it's gotten a lot worse ever since swim wrote that post and now he does it almost every day and can't go more than 3 days without it.He's noticed mild withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, dihorrea and lethargy but nothing too bad.He currently CWEs from 24 Solpadeine tablets (500mg/30mg/8mg) and he'd like to do a lot more than that but the only pills avaliable in his country contain 30mg of caffeine each making it very hard to tolerate larger doses.

Swim loves opioid euphoria and he's had incredible experiences many times.But lately he gets almost nothing except for 3 days ago.He took his usual dose (he's really, really good at CWE so it was about the same dose) and experienced an incredible rush and even nodded a little.But then Swim took the same dose again the next day and experienced his usual buzz.No matter what swim does, he just can't get the same rush he got 3 days ago...Any theories??

Oh, and about the Valium, here in Saudi doctors watch medication really, really carefully and treat a 2mg pill of Valium as if it was an ampule of morphine.I tried to go to many doctors but they all just said that I should get some therapy and not resort to "Narcotics" (that's what the guy called it) yet.Fuck I hate this place...

[tiramisu4you]

SWIM started indulging in di-hydrocodeine approximately 8 weeks ago. At the beginning he got a buzz off 105mg. A few days later he bumped it to 210mg and started to feel really really good. About a month ago he bumped it up to 300mg and it was euphoric. Now SWIM does 450mg of di-hydrocodeine and gets a content buzz, but it's not as euphoric. Swim doesn't plan to go higher than 500mg. SWIM always takes 700-1050mg of Carisprodol (soma) when he eats his codeine. After about 5 hours swim takes some a couple benzos and keeps nodding until he takes a roofie to fall asleep.

[cybergenesis]

Swim set himself a couple of rules regarding opiates to reduce tolerance and addiction potential. Generally Swim may do it one day, but not two days in a row. If Swim does it a second time, it must be with one off day between the two days of usage. After Swim has done it like this, Swim must have 10-14 day break.

[drguildo]

SWIM does find himself thinking about it most days (nowhere near all the time though, mainly when he's winding down in the evening) but it's difficult to say whether it is because he's getting addicted or simply because it's something he enjoys so much. SWIM still does the other things he enjoys, it's just being high makes them all the more enjoyable.

Part of the reason SWIM asks is because the past couple of days he has been getting very mild flu-like symptoms, but only in the evenings (actually it's pretty much just the body ache) and is worried it might be withdrawal symptoms. For the past few weeks SWIM has been taking 120mg once every 3 or 4 days (although he has done 240mg a couple of times in the past fortnight but doesn't plan to do that on a regular basis), does this sound like a sensible amount or is it too much?