The Culprit Coffee Filter and Freezer

This issue of AMM hosts an article new as to its theme in our journal. It focuses on a continuous risk imbedded in the medication submitted to the over the counter (OTC) regime. Some of the OTC drugs manufactured as combined analgesics contain NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and codeine as phosphate salt. Codeine was used as a local anesthetic, to treat diarrhea, but mostly as a cure for cough. It is common knowledge that the use of codeine is largely spread to the extent that users often obtain it themselves from OTC drugs. The commonest method to extract codeine from pills containing combined analgesics is cold water extraction (CWE). One does not need extensive knowledge or special skills to extract codeine phosphate from OTC pills. The availability of information freely accessible on the Internet as to the methods to extract codeine is appalling. Over 1 690 000 entries on the net searched yesterday offered advice as to how best extract codeine from OTCs. As a matter of fact, it took less than a minute to quickly find an information source that updated me on the methods to extract recreational drugs. There was no warning as to the safety of the source. [More]

Retraction