Friend asking me for strong painkillers

[madpulse29]

I don’t know them well and was chatting to them about a BA day cold I’d recently had.They asked me if I had any codeine? I said no and they said they’d have to go and see the doc again but I thought it was a bit strange.

AIBU?i generally wouldn’t take anybody else’s medication.

Not sure why my phone put capitals in but I meant bad cold.

What’s a BA day cold?

I meant a bad cold, sorry it’s my phone it has a mind of its own

I don’t know. Codeine doesn’t do anything for me. Even Tramadol doesn’t move me - I’ve got shitloads of it left over from a pain issue. Quite why it’s a popular drug for misuse mystifies me. I’d give it to a friend if they asked.

I think people can become dependant on codeine, it's an opiate.

No. Codeine is an addictive drug, I know someone who was heavily addicted. Wouldn’t give it to anyone

Codeine addiction is very common
That’s why she asked you if you had any.

I said I had lemsip but they didn’t want it.Their other half had used the codeine and the friend said she had to see to doc to get more.

Thanks for the replies so far,she has bluish lips and sometimes is quite up and down. I thought maybe one days they were a bit drunk, I could be reading too much into it though

So did this person have a cold? Why would they think you had codeine for a cold? I wouldn't give anyone prescription meds.

They had been blowing their nose then I’d mentioned I’d had a bad cold (chit chat) and I was surprised when they asked me if I had any codeine.It seemed like a strange medication for a cold,I wouldn’t say we were close friends either which made it more surprising. I’d normally have a lemsip or ibruprofen for a cold.

I've never known anyone take it for a cold, only strong pain relief and then they were only prescribed it for a set duration so they didn't get hooked. I recall them saying your body can start to become tolerant to it so the dose has to be upped, and doctors don't tend to prescribe it long term other than when it's really needed. I wonder if she's recently been on it and not able to get a repeat prescription.

I could be wrong however as I've never needed it myself.

You can buy codeine over the counter, so I wouldn't think she's doing anything illicit. She may well have taken paracetamol already, in which case a lemsip would be no good.

I may well be partially confused with something else then.

Yes, you can buy codeine over the counter, but doctors can prescribe a much higher dosage than can be bought.

The codeine you can buy over the counter is only 8mg in things like solpadeine.
I get mine from g.p. as its 30 mg plus paracetamol and is addictive. When I am bad and take full dose for a week or so...once I stop and take over the counter strength, I get glu like symptoms and the worst runs ever...it does ho off after a few days, but I am not surprised that people get dependant on it.

Flu

Codeine is a lethal drug to overdose on. Easily acquired. Need quite a lot stashed up though

Ask her if she’d like to go for coffee and talk

Codeine is a highly effective cough suppressant so maybe she was referring to that? In Germany it’s sold separately in liquid form as a cough remedy.

Well, there is codeine linctus that is used as a cough suppressant, but by the sound of it your friend wasn't inquiring about that.

Do you mean codeine or co-codamol? It’d be weird to ask for codeine as it’s prescribed but co-codamol is an over the counter painkiller.

No I asked if they meant cocodamol but they definitely wanted codeine apparently could only get it from the doctor

You can buy codeine over the counter but only enough for three days so not entirely unreasonable for someone to ask for a tablet or two if you have them. Okay it's not exactly paracetamol and you shouldn't be handing them out but it's not completely crazy.

No one needs codeine for a cold though!

No it’s a bit strange.Her moods are up and down to and always has bluish lips.