Codeine legislation

In view of prevention, it would be advisable to obtain legislative measures worldwide in order to limit the over-the-counter availability of all analgesics containing two analgesic components plus caffeine/codeine. This is formally asked in Europe [8] as well as in the United States [7] by a large group of investigators active in the field. 

Many northern states, however, also had anticannabis laws as early as 1915. To the legislators of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, a narcotic was a narcotic, whatever its name. Cannabis was considered a narcotic and therefore was accorded the same status as opium, morphine, heroin, and codeine, all of which were proscribed. Thus, when New York City s Board of Health prohibited cannabis from the city s streets in 1914, the New York Times (July 30, 1914) reported that the drag was a "narcotic [with] practically the same effect as morphine and cocaine... [and] the inclusion of cannabis indica among the drags to be sold only on prescription is only common sense. Devotees of hashish are now hardly numerous here to count, but they are likely to increase as other narcotics become harder to obtain."... 

Most of us are aware of the big Codeine cough-syrup scare of the early 60 s. All of a sudden, with a history going back to the Civil War, we "discover" a few milder Codeine addicts are still around, and set out to stomp them out via the media. As a result, some heavy anti-cough syrup legislation was created, and millions of people became aware that Codeine existed. Abuse rate shot way up, and to this date we still have... 

Other substances (see also Sect. 2.4.7) will be identified by individual Countries as requiring controls on their purchasing, record keeping and storage and use e.g. diazepam, codeine ergotamine and ephedrine. There are also substances which may be hazardous in another way i.e. the explosive nature of potassium permanganate. Pharmacies must be aware of these requirements and comply with all local legislation. 

Among the numerous families of drugs, in this chapter, we have focused our attention on the most widely used methods of analysis found in the literature for the determination of six of the major alkaloids of the poppy plant (Papaver somniferum) named morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine, narcotine, and narceine. The choice of method will depend on the resources and equipment available to the analyst in the forensic laboratories, the legislative system in which the analyst is working, and the different forensic samples where... 

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