Codeine

How long the effects last and the drug stays in your system depends on how much you’ve taken, your size and what other drugs you may have also taken.

Prescribed codeine

To kick in:

It takes around one hour for codeine to take effect.

How long it lasts:

Codeine lasts for around 3 to 4 hours depending on the dose taken.

After effects:

After taking codeine, a person can feel tired, lethargic and washed out.

Codeine can show up on a urine test for up to 2 days.

• Small white pills or tablets
• A syrup – like a cough syrup
• A solution – for injecting

• Codeine is used to treat mild to moderate pain and diarrhea. People usually swallow it in pills.

• On its own, codeine is a prescription-only opiate painkiller. It’s used to treat pain that can’t be stopped by more common painkillers. This means you can’t buy it legally without a prescription.

• Small amounts of codeine are sometimes mixed with other medicines – like paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin – and these can be bought from a chemist or pharmacy.

• Because codeine is highly addictive, medicines that contain it (such as co-codamol) carry warnings on the packs about the risk of addiction. They advise that the person taking the medicine doesn’t take it for more than three days at a time without medical advice.

• People who take codeine illegally, or abuse their prescription (don’t take it how they should), sometimes crush up the tablets and snort them.

Yes, codeine is addictive.

Over time codeine can produce cravings and a psychological desire to keep on using.

Some people get addicted to codeine after being prescribed it to treat physical pain. They can experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking the tablets and this can be a reason that people continue taking it or seek codeine illegally.

Tolerance can also build up, so that users have to take more just to get the same effects or to avoid unpleasant withdrawals.

Physical dependence is common in regular users. Withdrawal symptoms include:

• nervous tremors
• anxiety
• yawning
• sweating
• runny nose
• sleep disturbance
• nausea
• diarrhoea
• goosebumps
• restlessness
• abdominal cramps and muscle spasms

Like drink-driving, driving when high is dangerous and illegal. If you’re caught driving under the influence, you may receive a heavy fine, driving ban, or prison sentence.

If the police catch people supplying illegal drugs in a home, club, bar or hostel, they can potentially prosecute the landlord, club owner or any other person concerned in the management of the premises.

Codeine on its own is only available on prescription, unauthorised possession is illegal. Small amounts of codeine are in some medicines which can be bought without prescription but only in pharmacies.

These medicines include cough syrups, and tablets or capsules where the codeine is combined with other medicines, such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or aspirin, for treating headaches, period pain etc.

Codeine containing medicines carry warnings on the packs about the risk of addiction and advise that the non-prescription medicines should only be used for up to three days at a time without medical advice.