Coldwater Codeine Extraction

Written by Chromic

HTML by Rhodium

Consider Chromic's criteria for concentrating codeine and clearing caffeine by coldwater.
Here in, lies a happy habit that more than halves the heart-taxing caffeine from Harry's Coldwater Extraction.

Each AC&C used in this extraction contained:

200ct uncrushed AC&C added to 600ml beaker (net 95g). Hot water was added to 550ml mark. Stirred 0.5h w/mag stirring1. Cooled in fridge for 4h. 360ml decanted to 2nd beaker. 190ml left in sludge layer. (65% of 1.6g codeine extracted)

200ml hot water added to 600ml beaker. Stirred 5min. Cooled in fridge for 4h. Decanted 200ml to 2nd beaker. (18% of 1.6g codeine extracted)

190ml hot water added to 600ml beaker. Stirred 5min. Cooled in fridge for 4h. Decanted 190ml to 2nd beaker. (9% of 1.6g codeine extracted)

This means that 92% of the total codeine/caffeine was extracted into a net volume of 750ml. (1.47g codeine, 2.74g caffeine) What remains in the beaker is mostly junk & aspirin. Reduced volume in 2nd beaker to 150mL by boiling. The room fills with the mild smell of vinegar as some of the aspirin decomposes. The solution is cooled in the fridge and then filtered2. Then the volume is again reduced to 50mL. The solution is cooled in the fridge and then filtered3. After this treatment, less than 15% of the original amount of caffeine will remain in the solution.

What remains is a solution of codeine without a discernable amount of caffeine that leaves a truly euphoric stoning codeine buzz. The solution can be boiled down to a powder that looks something like brown sugar and is intensely bitter (unlike caffeine, that is only mildly bitter). This is a relatively concentrated form of codeine phosphate that you're after. Rejoice! Responsably enjoy the fruits of opiate gods.

Notes:

  1. If you don't have automated stirring, just stir occassionally over a half-hour period of time.
  2. Some amount of caffeine is filtered off at this step. Remember to wash your filter paper with a bit of ice-cold water to reduce the losses. What you're doing is actually recrystallizing the caffeine, and for people who haven't seen it before, it almost looks like cotton candy.
  3. More caffeine is filtered off at this step.

Note how this technique also does not use any acids, bases or organic solvents to accomplish the removal of caffeine from the caffeine/codeine, and thus I feel is a significant breakthrough.

Chromic would like to congratulate a name-withheld codeine fanatatic who he worked alongside with (well, via private messages) to work out this technique.