When we were young, how I loved thee,
I’d stay out all night, ,and you’d wait for me,
Dancing in my glass of water,
My hangover like a lamb to the slaughter,
Codeine raced around my brain,
Eliminated self-induced pain,
Then they hid you under their counters,
Now i’m left with awful pounders,
Panadol are no magic beans,
How I miss thee, my Solpadeine

Sounds interesting, if it ever comes down to Limerick I would probably go.

Half the country is addicted to solpadeine and them new regulation are a joke. The Irish med board let them on free sale over the counter for 15 years and without notice put the on restricted sale giving the chemist power on who they sell them too. 15 years is a long time to be taking solpadeine and all of a sudden be told by a chemist to try another tablet cos there’s codeine in solpadeine. I answer that, why do you think iv been taking them for 15 years.

Did anyone notice how much caffeine goes into solpadiene ? 65 mg is quite a lot of caffeine and has to be a big part of addiction to solpadiene. I mean, of you have too much caffeine, what do you get? A headache, so more solpadiene is taken. This also explains why panadol extra has taken over from solpadiene – the codeine was never the issue and people who genuinely need pain relief are being denied it by over zealous pharmacists. Nurofen or ibuprofen causes many of its own problems and is not in any way safer than a bit of codeine. This paranoia about codeine makes no sense

It’s a vicious cycle u take a product that contains codeine for pain… It’s just not solpadeine nurofen plus was a huge seller too. I knew of people going from pharmacy to pharmacy just trying to buy as many of these otc items as possible. I did refuse to give them out lots of times a packet of those products say 24 should last ( taken every 4/6 hrs 2 to 3 days not 12 hrs! They also too wld ask for a well known cough mixture that had codeine in it to beef up the effect with the codeine tab. Also to u can get one of these tabs in prescription that has 30 mg of codeine twice the amount as a the regular product and they wld try and talk u in to giving it to them! Not a blooming hope! Addiction knows no bounties

Get off your high horse Eoin, what I am saying is the high caffeine content in these tablets is easily as addictive as the small amount of codeine in solpadeine. An Keith – did you even read that website you linked to? It is a US site and talks about street use of high amounts of codeine found in cough syrup available there. Of course high amounts of codeine can cause problems, but small amounts (without the caffeine) like the 8 mg found in solpadeine can be safely used to good effect. THe pharmacists have over reacted and seem drunk on their power. The drug they recommend you use instead of codeine is ibuprofen, which has as many, if not more side effects
such as – quoted from the interweb:

Ibuprofen may cause life-threatening heart or circulation problems such as heart attack or stroke, especially if you use it long term. Do not use ibuprofen just before or after heart bypass surgery (coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG).

Get emergency medical help if you have chest pain, weakness, shortness of breath, slurred speech, or problems with vision or balance.

This medicine may also cause serious effects on the stomach or intestines, including bleeding or perforation (forming of a hole). These conditions can be fatal and can occur without warning while you are taking ibuprofen, especially in older adults.

Call your doctor at once if you have symptoms of stomach bleeding such as black, bloody, or tarry stools, or coughing up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds.

Do not take more of this medication than is recommended. An overdose of ibuprofen can cause damage to your stomach or intestines. Use only the smallest amount of medication needed to get relief from your pain, swelling, or fever.

Does this sound like its a better alternative to a small amount of codeine?

I think my sister wrote this….