Tighter controls on codeine painkillers!

[cisumevil]

By Julian Drape

August 05, 2009 06:56pm

TIGHTER contols on over-the-counter painkillers containing codeine will come into effect from May next year, but pharmacists say the changes will only mask the problem of people abusing the drugs.

The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (NDPSC) has confirmed that codeine combination products will become "pharmacist only" for dispensing.

The recommended daily dose will be set at 100mg of codeine and the maximum pack size limited to five days' supply.

Cough and cold preparations are to be excluded from the changes.

The move is in response to community concern surrounding the abuse of, and addiction to,

common but potent painkillers.

High use of codeine has been linked to serious side-effects including perforated stomach ulcers, renal failure and even death.

The committee noted that making codeine combinations Schedule 3 drugs could increase costs, but suggested "questions of cost were not a directly relevant consideration for a scheduling decision".

It said requiring buyers to speak to a pharmacist could be "a significant trigger for addicts to eventually seek help".

But the Pharmacy Guild of Australia says the committee's decision is not the solution and will only mask abuse.

"These changes alone are unlikely to influence individual misuse behaviour," guild president Kos Sclavos said.

"The shift to `pharmacist only' ... and to smaller pack sizes will only see some at-risk people move to multiple packs and resort to pharmacy shopping."

The guild had wanted the committee to introduce real-time monitoring and reporting of sales of codeine combinations, as is done with pseudoephedrine.

"Sadly, however, it is very likely that emergency wards will continue to have to deal with gastric bleeding and deaths from this misuse well beyond the introduction of these measures in May next year," Mr Sclavos said.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21...5005361,00.html

[FancyPants]

High use of codeine has been linked to serious side-effects including perforated stomach ulcers, renal failure and even death.

Hm I wonder what percentage of those cases are actually the result of what the codeine's usually paired with; ie either ibuprofen or paracetamol. I'm willing to bet a very large proportion considering stomach ulcers and renal failure are endemic among ibu and paracetamol abuse and also because they say "linked to..." not directly caused by the codeine. Clever crunts they are, you have to admit.

[Rabelais]

This is news to me. Whenever I have purchased Neurofen+ I have always had to go to the pharmacist. They would ask me if I had gastric problems and not to take more than 6 in 24hrs blah blah. I was even asked to give my drivers license when I went to buy a pack from Terry White chemist. I asked them if there was a law which required me to give identification, then said no and that it was just store policy. I walked out and went to a competitor - it's the principle dammit!!!

[Smiling Cloud]

When a friend of mine was in a detox centre he said there was this chick in there for codiene withdrawal. She was eating up to 50 nurofen+ everyday! He explained to her how to do a cwe so that she didn;t kill her kidneys but got in serious trouble from the nurses. Alot of people don't understand that ibuprofen and paracetamol are actually toxic and don;t see the hjarm in eating alot of them to get the codeine. THey give paracetamol to children, how toxic could it be?

So i understand why they would want to limit these medicines. Eating that many nurofens (or panadols) a day without washing all the shit out is a bad choice. And when you buy the medicine they don;t expect you to wash all the shit out so its pretty irresponsible to be selling a 48 packet of panadeine to Ethyl Tinkerton everyday. Maybe they should make 100mg codiene tablets available on prescription so people can get their hit without destroying their bodies.

When i moved into the house i;m living in atm it hadn't been cleaned that well. In the shed there were hundreds of empty packets of panadeine, nuroifen +, and other codeine products stuffed into all the empty crevices in the bricks. I was digging in the garden and found a buried stash of empty packets! All up there would have been about 3, maybe 4, garbage bags full! Whoever lived here before me must've had quite the taste for codeine and also didn;t want anyone finding out.

[AndyAmine.]

The fact that they were all out in the shed would suggest to me that it was more likely a small time homebake lab than the rubbish from a codeine muncher.

[blip]

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Edited April 6, 2010 by lsdreamz

[Xenodimensional]

Sounds like soon the government will come over to my house of an evening, cook me dinner to some impossibly high, sanitary standard, choose TV shows that are deemed safe to view, pour me 1.5 statndard drinks of Government approved wine and advise me of what time to fall asleep in a Government approved bed.

[oxydiser]

Bah, what a joke. All this will do is piss off pharmacists and legitimate users of these products. We see pharmacy shopping quite often as there are 3 pharmacies in close proximity to the store I work at and this is only gonna make it worse.

So according to my calculations the pack size for nurofen+ will become 40.

Maybe they should make 100mg codiene tablets available on prescription so people can get their hit without destroying their bodies.

30mg straight codeine tablets are available on prescription but they are S8

[kindness]

Sounds like soon the government will come over to my house of an evening, cook me dinner to some impossibly high, sanitary standard, choose TV shows that are deemed safe to view, pour me 1.5 statndard drinks of Government approved wine and advise me of what time to fall asleep in a Government approved bed.

At least it would create jobs they could call it an economic stimulus project.

[Thelema]

The changes will not take place until May 2010. As always, the actual new schedules are a bit more complex than the jounalist reports. Codeine will still be available s2 if 10mg or less per tablet, if combined with phenylephrine. (anyone know how to separate these two-LOL)

So the new s2 regulations will be:

Schedule 2 – Amendments

(The following codeine amendment has a delayed implementation of 1 May 2010).

CODEINE – Amend entry to read:

CODEINE in preparations for the treatment of coughs and colds when:

(a) not combined with any other opiate substance;

( compounded with one or more other therapeutically active

substances, of which at least one is phenylephrine and not

more than one is an analgesic substance:

(i) in divided preparations containing 10 mg or less of

codeine per dosage unit; or

(ii) in undivided preparations containing 0.25 per cent or

less of codeine;

© labelled with a recommended daily dose not exceeding 60 mg

of codeine; and

(d) in packs containing not more than 5 days of supply at the

maximum dose recommended on the label.

And everything else will be shunted up a schedule into s3, including, for instance, panadeine and N+:

Schedule 3 – Amendment

(The following codeine amendment has a delayed implementation of 1 May 2010).

CODEINE – Amend entry to read:

CODEINE when:

(a) not combined with any other opiate substance;

( compounded with one or more other therapeutically active

substances, of which not more than one is an analgesic

substance:

(i) in divided preparations containing 12 mg or less of

codeine per dosage unit; or

(ii) in undivided preparations containing 0.25 per cent or

less of codeine; and

© labelled with a recommended daily dose not exceeding 100 mg

of codeine; and

(d) in packs containing not more than 5 days of supply at the

maximum dose recommended on the label,

except when included in Schedule 2.