Codeine Addiction

Even though codeine is primarily used as a painkiller, it has some properties that can help in cough suppression. For this reason, many cough syrups available in the UK include small to moderate amounts of codeine. 

“When I was going to the pharmacy, people in the queue in front of me were buying it. When I was walking away, I could hear the person after me buying it,” said Mark, a recovering codeine addict, from Manchester. 

It is no wonder that codeine is readily accessible in the UK despite it being a Class B controlled substance. 

It is for this reason that codeine has become an integral part of the drug culture in the UK and can be found in a “Friday night party punch” easily, for instance. 

Note: Codeine abuse symptoms are more or less the same as codeine addiction symptoms. Read ahead to explore them! 

Physicians in the UK tend to prescribe codeine at the lowest possible doses for the shortest durations. If people indulge in consuming higher-than-recommended doses even after their pain has subsided, it is considered to be Codeine abuse. 

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Recreational liquid codeine abuse (as cough syrups) is also fairly common. 

There are a few ways that adolescents resort to when simple codeine pills become “not spicy enough.” 

Crushing and snorting the pills is the first easy method. This causes a surge in the strength and potency of the drug. The passage from the nasal route to the brain is much faster as well. 

Codeine can also be mixed in liquids and injected into the veins. This type of administration skips the whole “oral route” assimilation ritual causing the efficacy of the drug to remain stable. 

Both the aforementioned methods of abuse grant quicker and stronger codeine pills high. 

In addition to this, codeine cough syrup is also combined with alcohol to make a drink often referred to as Purple drank, lean, or Sizzurp. 

Alcohol, being a Central Nervous System depressant like Codeine, also gives rise to a similar high. Codeine abuse with alcohol can, therefore, lead to respiratory failure. Codeine with pain pills and benzodiazepines can also cause a stupefying high. 

You know, the way you indulge in codeine abuse does not matter. What matters is the answer to the question: Can codeine kill you? 

Let’s face it; Codeine can most probably kill you if you are abusing it with pain pills, alcohol, and other types of CNS depressants. There’s only so much that your body can tolerate. 

Note: The UK’s opioid overdose crisis is a result of extensive codeine abuse. Even after abusing codeine, people tend to search for something more potent and reach out to consume different opioids.