Extracting Codeine

Below are two procedures for removing the "garbage" from pills that contain codeine. There were taken from newsgroup postings and credit is given. The opinions expressed are those of the writers who are less cautious than we here at Heroin Helper. In particular, to the comment made below that "you only live once", we would add, "you only die once".
by Dr. H © 2001

Procedure 1
This was the first extraction I ever worked out. It is a simple method of extracting about 500mg of Codeine Phosphate salt from 100 8mg Panadeine tablets. Comes in mighty handy if you're hanging out with nothing more then $10, a 500ml enamel cup, a 40cm length of 20mm poly pipe, and some toilet paper.

Dissolve your 100 tabs in about 250ml of cold water. When dissolved, mix and let settle in a fridge. If the water is cold, most of the chalk and undissolved paracetamol will settle out leaving the solution near clear.

If the solution is clear, carefully siphon off the clear top layer and discard the chalk layer. If it's not clear, you will need to filter it. To do this, you will need to make a simple filtering coulomb. You do so as follows: roll up a neat even sausage of toilet paper Make it a size so that it fits fairly sight in the end of the 40 cm length of 20 mm poly pipe. Pour the un-clear Panadeine solution through the filtering coulomb. Collect the clear solution (filtrate).

Place the clear solution in the enamel cup and boil it down to about 20 to 30 ml. Remove the cup from the heat and place it in the freezer for a couple of minutes. Upon cooling, a white precipitate of Paracetamol will form on the bottom of the cup. Using a piece of cotton wool and a 20 ml syringe, remove all the solution and a 5 ml cold water wash.

Rinse out the cup and replace the filtrate. Put it back on the heat, reducing the solution to about 10ml. This time upon cooling, the Paracetamol will be about half the solution. Using the cotton wool and syringe, remove the concentrated Codeine solution.

Warning: There is a [a lot] of Codeine Phosphate there, about 300 to 800mg. So don't blow your head off if you shoot it. Injecting Codeine is not quit advisable to the average weekend user, but ... you only live once.

What I use to do was have a 300mg shot of Codeine in the doctor's car park then crawl inside with a massive Codeine headache and 9 out of 10 doctors would do me a shot of Peth. But like I said Shooting Codeine can cause brain haemorrhage, due to high blood pressure. Maybe just eat it.
by Doctor Dave DOBYC (David J Hall) © 1997


Procedure 2
Over the years, I have developed my own technique for extracting codeine from OTC aspirin products. [Such products are over the counter (OTC) in places like Canada and the United Kingdom--not the USA -Ed.] I have read the FAQ and think that the cold water method is a good process, but that my process is better since it eliminates the bulk of the caffeine and is much easier to do. The only drawback of my process is that it doesn't work with Tylenol containing tablets. Thus the procedure below only is useful with AC&C type tablets from Canada.

Advantages:
* Removes almost all the aspirin.
* Leaves very little caffeine in the product.
* Is faster to prepare.
* Requires no power, refrigeration, or complicated equipment.
* Has built in filtration.
* Necessary equipment can fit in a small pouch or bag.
* None of the equipment is restricted.

Disadvantage:
* Doesn't work with tablets containing Tylenol.

The equipment needed is readily available and will fit into a relatively small pouch or bag. I will list the equipment below:
* 20 cc or 30 cc syringe, either glass or plastic (available at hobby or craft stores)
* Small piece of paper towel about 3 x 3 inches
* Mortar and Pestle (to grind tablets, or suitable substitute)
* Funnel
* Water
* Small collection bottle

Procedure:
Take the small piece of paper towel and fold it up so that it forms a plug about 1/8" thick that will fit the circular area of the 20 cc syringe that you have chosen. Get it soaked with water and push it down to the bottom of the syringe. Insert the syringe plunger and push it all the way down and press the paper at the bottom. The paper should form a plug that fits the shape of the syringe about 1/8 inch thick. Your filtering syringe is now ready for use. You only have to do this part once.

Grind about 20 AC&C tablets (160mg codeine) into a fine powder. I use a thick walled juice glass about 2 inches tall and a steel rod about 1/2 inch in diameter and 6 inches long. I place the 20 tablets in the bottom and break them each by placing the end of the steel rod on each tablet and pressing while twisting. After all are broken up, move the steel rod around against the walls for about a minute to grind into a fine powder. It is important that a fine powder be obtained. Note: AC&C tabs come from basically 2 manufacturers. One makes a little larger tablet that is much easier to grind. I get this one as a brand name called "Life". The other maker usually is the "Big V" brand. Both work well, the slightly larger tabs just grind easier.

Pour the powder into the open syringe. It should go in evenly. Use a funnel or a paper water cup with the bottom cut off to pour it in. In a 20cc syringe, it will fill about 10cc or so. Gently tamp down the surface of the powder about a quarter inch or so to make a firm surface. I use the steel rod to do this. Pour down the sides about 5 to 8cc of room temperature water. Pour it down the sides as to not break up the surface of the powder. Gently insert the plunger into the syringe and apply gentle pressure. You want the water to take about a minute to travel evenly through the powder. It is important that it travel evenly, if not then you made a mistake in grinding, pouring, or packing the powder. As the water travels through the powder, codeine's large solubility makes it concentrate in the leading edge of the water inhibiting the dissolution of the aspirin and caffeine.

Collect about 3 to 4 cc of the solution, about 60 to 80 drops depending on the syringe tip. This small volume of solution will have virtually all of the codeine and very little of the aspirin and caffeine. When done, withdraw the plunger. Then, many times, you can blow hard on the end of the syringe and the plug of aspirin will come out making it ready for next time.

This solution can be sterilized and IM injected or just taken orally. I usually do 2 of these batches into a 20cc small bottle. For oral use, I'll fill the rest of the bottle with water so that I can judge the dose more accurately. For IM injection, I'll put one batch in the bottle and add an equal volume of water. Then loosen the lid to allow pressure to escape and put it in the microwave for 10 to 60 seconds depending on the oven. Watch through the window and stop it when it starts to boil. Allow it to cool and it is ready for injection into one of many enjoyable spots. A fine point for IM, they put an acidic powder in the tabs which makes the product solution irritating when injected. This can be neutralized with a very small amount of baking soda. Don't add too much though, if the solution goes basic in pH it will be much worse than the original. If the solution doesn't fizz when you add the baking soda, you've added too much.

This simple technique is fast and efficient. I can perform this procedure in a couple of minutes. If you try this with tabs containing Tylenol, it will form a solid plug of powder and no matter how hard you apply pressure you won't be able to get any solution out. For Tylenol products, use the FAQ cold water technique.
by Focketman © 1998

Edited by Dr. H © 2002
Last Updated: 5 January 2004