DOSE:	repeated	oral	Opiates	(pill / tablet)
	repeated	smoked	Cannabis	(plant material)

BODY WEIGHT:

165 lb

I'm 18 years old living in the United States. I've had extensive experience with marijuana, several experiences with psilocybin mushrooms, alcohol of course, salvia, and now what's growing to be extensive experience with codeine.

My experience with severe pain and codeine started about a year ago when I first started getting serious symptoms from cancer I have just recently been diagnosed with. My affliction is Hodgkin's disease, a very curable, yet sufficiently painful cancer of the lymphatic system. In my case I have a very large and painful tumor in the center of my chest that causes systemic pain throughout my upper body. A major bummer, indeed.

When the pain first started my parents, who are both very conveniently doctors, believed I had dislocated a bone in my chest, and had little comprehension for the level of pain I was enduring. Finally they prescribed me 10 pills of some basic 5mg Vicodin in June, 6 months into it all. Needless to say, the pain never went away.

In late august the pain was intolerable, but my parents really didn't want to prescribe any more full on narcotics, they may have a small idea of my drug experience, i.e. weed. I thus received Darvocet. Darvocet, or Propoxyphene, is a pseudo-opiate. It has all the same affects as Vicodin, just slightly less intense, and it's a different chemical so it reduces the chances of addiction. It seems to make me more tired, than really relieve any pain, but it was 50mg Propoxyphene with 650 mg acetaminophen (Tylenol), so the Tylenol helped. Unfortunately the only problem with codeine is that the easily accessible kind is almost always combined with Tylenol, and too much Tylenol is very toxic to the liver.

Shortly after the Darvocet prescription, I had a surgery to determine the nature of the tumor. Following the surgery I was prescribed 40 pills of 5mg/500mg Hydrocodone with Acetaminophen (Vicodin). It was good to me for a while, but this was the first time I experienced the building of a tolerance. Three pills will give you a good trip and kill any pain, but after a week of that it just kills the pain and the cognitive pleasures of the narcotic begin to become less noticeable. With this prescription I also first began to encounter the less pleasurable side affects of codeine. Codeine in any form basically shuts down the bowels, providing for a very solid constipation, but as long as you're on the drug it, or anything for that matter, is not a major concern.

Two weeks after the first biopsy doctors still had no idea what was growing in my chest. They needed to go in again, but this time it was going to be pretty heavy. I was put under with some pretty fun drugs that I'll probably write about later. They proceeded to scoop out most of my 1st and 2nd rib on the right side, seeing as they had become mostly jelly. After this surgery my pain was significantly reduced and I was feeling much better. Regardless of that, I was at that time prescribed 30 pills of Oxycondone (Oxycontin, Percocet, OX). This stuff is pretty fucking heavy. Real habitual users crush it up and snort it, apparently that's about as close as you can get to heroin.

My first night out of the hospital I was I.V. morphine, one 1000mg Vicodin, 2 500mg Vicodin, and 2 5/325mg Oxycontin. That was about as fucked up as I'd ever like to be on opiates. I didn't sleep the whole night. I was tired, but I was way too messed up to rest my mind, and I was kind of scared my heart would stop as well. Codeine lowers your blood pressure greatly, and is a danger in that respect; Marijuana also does this, and is another great thing to mix into a codeine stew. Alcohol is fun, but very dangerous if you get out of control. Alcohol increases the chances of an overdose.

I still have some of the Oxycontin left, along with a more recent prescription of 40 more Vicodin pills. Ten minutes before starting this piece of literature I took one Oxycontin and one Vicodin. As you can see they have not impaired my ability to write, but the process has surely been inhibited, and greatly lengthened. Recently I've been taking codeine of one sort or the other and mixing it with copious amounts of marijuana. That is a great thing to try if you ever get the chance. Paranoia from marijuana quite fully eliminated, but it's a good idea to keep a mindful eye on yourself, codeine can make things fairly unpredictable.

I'm beginning to ramble, but I'd like to make light of Codeine's addiction factor. I'm told that it can be very physically and mentally addicting. I'm fairly positive that I have a mental addiction to marijuana, but that's nothing 2 days of stress won't take care of. This definitely makes me more susceptible to a mental addiction to codeine, but again, 2 days, stress, headache, whatever, no big deal.

But! The physical addiction. I'm beginning to get a little worried, seeing as how I've begun to feel like shit every day when I don't take a Vicodin. Now, this could all be the cancer. I start chemotherapy in 2 days. I live in Washington, and my doctor has agreed to prescribe me medical marijuana if I so desire, and hopefully things will start to look up, but I'm quite anxious for the end of my Vicodin. It's been fun, but being stuck on the shit would most certainly not be pleasureful. It makes a strong mental focus quite difficult. It also makes mental multitasking very difficult. I couldn't imagine holding down a serious job or attending an esteemed university with a codeine addiction.

And that's all I've got say about codeine. It's been fun, it's been depressing, it's been constipated, and it's been exhilarating! Overall it's been a positive experience, and I encourage anyone who's interested to try it once or twice. All in all, weed is way cooler, way more tolerable for the body and a lot easier to control. It's surely my drug of choice.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 26997
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 2, 2007	Views: 43,256
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Codeine (14), Cannabis (1), Oxycodone (176), Pharms - Propoxyphene (206), Hydrocodone (111), Opiates (207) : Various (28), Medical Use (47), Retrospective / Summary (11)