Over The Counter Codeine Addiction

I was just reading an old posting about over the counter (OTC) codeine  addiction and thought I'd share some of my own experiences in this area. When I was receiving scripts for Morphine and Oxy from my doc I would invariably use them all up long before the next script was due. To bridge the gap so to speak I would buy OTC codeine and Paracetamol (acetaminophen) tablets. In the UK you can buy these without prescription and each tab contains 8mg of codeine and 5000mg paracetamol. The pharmacist is only supposed to sell you 32 at a time (but this is up to their own discretion - often they will sell you 3 or 4 packs of 32). If you trawl every chemist in town you can soon amass hundreds of tablete. The obvious problem is that simce I was taking literally thousands of mgs of oxy and morphine per day, 8mg of codeine per tab isn't going to do much. It is however an extremely easy process to separate out the codeine from the paracetamol and tablet binders (don't worry, I have no intention of disclosing how this is done). Anyway, I feel really ashamed of myself talking about this but those are my experiences and I just wanted to talk about them as this makes me fell less guilty so to speak. It's amazing when you look back and see the lengths you have gone to to get your fix. Things you would never have imagined yourself doing before you got hooked. This just goes to show the insiduous nature of our habit.
God bless all,
Graeme.

[bodybuilder1]

sorry that should have said 500mg of paracetamol per tablet not 5000mg

[3 1/2 yrs sober]

Hey don't beat yourself up over the things you did in your past.  I don't know if you are sober now or not, but if you are try to forgive yourself.  I did the same thing, beating myself up over stupid mistakes, and I ended up relapsing.  That was over 3 years ago.  While I was in treatment the second time i realized how important it was to forgive myself or I was never going to stay sober.  Whenever I feel the shame come over me, I pray for God to remove all the shame and guilt, and I usually passes.  I know I cannot stay sober if I am always feeling shame about my past actions and behaviors.  

[FLaddict]

That is the nature of the disease man.. I remember you when you were here before.. How have you been?? We all do things we think are crazy later... For instance when I couldn't get my precious hydro I would use oxy.. moving up in the drug classes.. Crazy now.. but at the time it made perfect sense, just like you cold water extracting your pills..
I hope you continue to fight.. you will be in my thoughts