Is codeine a gateway drug to heroin?

[janef001]

I'm always watching documentaries in the States of how prescription painkillers like hydrocodone, oxycodone etc.. lead people to harder drugs as they build a tolerance and the painkillers are too expensive. In fact most people who take heroin started on painkillers.

It makes me wonder if the possibility is the same with codeine since it's in the same opioid family.

I think part of the issue in the US in particular is the cost of the addiction to prescription painkillers can drive people to seek cheaper alternatives such as meth.

In fact most people who take heroin started on painkillers

Is this true in the UK?
As PP said, the issue arises in the USA because of the prohibitive cost of proper healthcare for many people.

Over prescribing these opiods is likely to causes addiction in the US then they seek cheaper alternatives Codeine is controlled here although addicts will take it to take the edge off.

I've known herion addicts and they didn't start on prescription painkillers.

All opioids can be addictive but that doesn’t mean everyone who takes an opioid will end up on heroin. It is about poor pain management, poor oversight and overuse.

I think the problem in the US is that doctors were told Oxycodone was not addictive and received incentives to prescribe it and so over prescribed over long periods of time and then there is the cost meaning people seek alternatives.

Opioids are so easy to get hooked on and such a nightmare to withdraw from. The doctors give them out without having a care about the devastating consequences. Once you can no longer get them prescribed you have to go the illegal route because you are already an addict. It's criminal the way people have access to these drugs. They should be reserved for terminally ill or after major surgery and for as brief a time as possible. The pain of recovery from surgery has nothing on the pain of withdrawal and the emotional pain of the families involved. I speak from experience.

I doubt it. They may both be opiates, but the demographics tend to be different, even if there is a broad crossover. Codeine users will tend to 'graduate' on to ever higher doses.

I thought part of the problem was when doctors began to stop prescribing oxy and the like and therefore people had to get it on the black market and then realised heroin was cheaper.

My ex was addicted to codeine, now he is a full blown heroin addict.

I think, regarding America, prescription pills were being thrown at people such as OxyContin, even people presenting with headaches could get strong opiate based pain pills. Doctors were being paid by the pharma companies to prescribe particular brands. For many many years the pharma companies denied that they were highly addictive and then the lawsuits started. All of a sudden doctors were refusing to prescribe without any sort of weaning program. They just stopped the supply and the patients had the choice, cold turkey or street dealers.
America's opiate crisis starts and ends with big pharma and their make money at all costs attitude.

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Have you seen Dopesick? What big pharma was able to get away with in the US was frankly terrifying. Although I think fentanyl rather than heroin is now becoming the biggest problem. I took over the counter codeine once for period pain abroad and it really made me feel 'better' and that was after taking it once. I could see how people could easily become addicted to that feeling, I'd never felt anything like it with pain killers before.

Cocaine is a lot cheaper here than in the US so the way an addiction develops will look a bit different.

@Staynow - I was given Fentanyl once for a medical procedure and I can 100% see why people get addicted, this weird happy floaty feeling I’d never felt before. I can see why it’s so restricted here.

I bloody loved Dopesick

I watched a programme where a girl was chewing fentynil patches! I think it was a Louis Therouex documentary she used it like chewing gum.

I’ve been on either codine or tramadol 24/7 for around 14 years & would never consider taking heroin/ anything other than what I’ve been prescribed.

I appreciate everybody has different tolerances though so maybe not always as back and white.

I've had oxycodone before. Very nice. Still wouldn't be tempted by heroin. I used to think if I were ever going to commit suicide, it would be an overdose on heroin though, weirdly, it would be the only time I'd consider it. As a first timer I'd imagine an overdose would be very easy.

Anything can be a gateway. It's a fallacy that addictions are all about the effects of the drug. Many people drink or take drugs and don't become addicted.

Controlling drugs is interesting for this reason. I've taken lots of different things including opiates but the only one I thought, "that's dangerous" was Valium. I could happily have munched that all day every day. I would have been hooked really quickly given half a chance. An effective drug met a hole inside me. And that's where addictions live.

Fortunately I had a lovely sensible British GP who gave me four at a time. Four. If I was in the states or elsewhere that would have been very different. To avoid addictions you either need to solve everyone's emotional issues (impossible) or make getting drugs really well controlled with lots of support and counselling and oversight and study.

No. Trauma is a gateway for drugs/addiction.

What I said. But much much more succinct.

I took dihydracodeine (sp?) for six months following an operation for lung cancer.

I stopped taking it, no problem. A doctor once explained to me that pain killers affect that part of your brain when you have pain. If you take them when the pain is less, they go to the "pleasure" part of the brain, which causes addiction problems.

this seemed to me to be a bit simplistic. But , hey. What do I know?

except I took codeine for six months when I was in most pain, and came off it, with no ill effects when the pain became less.

Unfortunately you only have to read Mumsnet to see many chronic pain patients are addicted to opiates, and will defend their addiction to the ends of the earth. These drugs destroy people.

This DH had a very minor orthopeadic procedure this year. He was sent home with 28× 30mg codeine, totally unnecessary. He didn't even take one. They are given out like smarties.

I take full dose of Codine daily, I have never had any effect from it apart from not feeling pain - I'm waiting for an op and I'm in intense pain without it. I won't be hunting out the local dealer any time soon.