DOSE:

repeated

Codeine

(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

224 kg

I am writing this report in the midst of both disappointment and anticipation as I have yet again fallen for this tablet's lure.

Brief background. Tried most drugs about both hard and soft with the exception of Heroin and PCP. I do tend to be drawn towards the disassociative side with LSD and methadone being my favourites over the years. Now that I am in my mid thirties I have almost stopped everything but still have odd relapses. Opiates however have had a pull on me which I have struggled to get control of.

Now let's get this straight. Like most others will probably tell you, I am not your typical 'junkie'. I class myself as more of an experimenter. I came across codeine by accident really when I started having moderate pain in my neck. GP prescribed me tablets 8mg codeine with 500mg paracetamol. Two of those at the time used to give me a slightly nice effect, so I started taking more and more. In the UK you can buy these over the counter with no problems. I was using the extraction technique and with this method used to take up to 16 at a time. I was not completely innocent and knew codeine was part of the opiate family and after a little research learned that I could get stronger tablets so after another trip to the GP came back with 15mg codeine tablets. One more trip and I was on the 30mg still with 500mg paracetamol. This happened over the space of a few weeks.

I cannot say for certain at this point whether I was addicted or not but I was certainly 'crabby' if I did not have my daily fix. As a point of interest, my daily fix has only ever been once a day and always in the evening after work. I was averaging around 250mg a go at this point. I can remember thinking what a wonder drug this was. Not only did I get a high which was pleasurable, my pain was gone, and more importantly the aftereffect the next day left me with a sense of wellbeing and that maybe, just maybe, I could cope with life's struggles after all.

After a few months I was still taking the same dose. Now this bit is hard to explain and the only way I can think of putting it is that the dose was just not doing it for me anymore. I still got the high, still got the pain relief but perhaps I was bored. That was ok because a trip to the GPs and I was in possession of Tramadol and then hydrocodeine. But no, didn't like either of those.

At this point I decided to stop. The reason for this was that I could see my GP stopping the tablets and wanted to do it myself before I was forced to. At this point I knew I was addicted. I had a terrible cold-like symptom, general uneasiness, depression and worst of all, a feeling of ants crawling under my skin although strangely enough only in my left lower arm. This started around 36 hours after my last dose and lasted for around four days after, peaking at around 3 days. Depression lasted a lot longer.

As stated at the start I am still not free. I now have binges on codeine which only last a couple of days at a time. I have also enjoyed the pleasures of Kratom which whilst for me is on a par with codeine pleasure-wise, I can assure you is just as addictive.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 72023
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 23, 2015	Views: 3,518
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Codeine (14) : Addiction & Habituation (10), Various (28)