Codeine
Yesterday afternoon, I came down with some sort of semi-feverish, achey type of thing. Am better today, fortunately, but I spent most of the evening huddled up on the sofa reading a book, wrapped in blanket and duvet and with both the heating and the gas fire on. At one point I asked Gill whether she had any paracetamol or something I could take to bring my temperature down. She handed me two of the tablets she’s been taking for her bad back: paracetamol and codeine.
Now I think I’ve had codeine before, but only when I’ve been very hungover. They certainly do the trick, and leave me in a nice warm fuzzy haze for the day. But this was the first time I’d even taken them on a reasonably clear head. My god! Those things are lethal. Within half-an-hour, I was blissed out on the sofa, staring at patches on the wall, my hand suspended in mid-air with no inclination to move it anywhere. I could have slumped in that same position, semi-conscious, for an indeterminate length of time. When I did finally get up, very slowly, and go to do something, my movements were fuzzy and ill-coordinated, but I really didn’t care. I slopped my cup of tea all over the place, but it just didn’t matter.
This is pretty much what I imagine being on heroin must be like. Fuzzy sloppy bliss. I can see now why people get addicted to this kind of shit. But the crazy thing is, these exact same pills are advertised on TV, with a clip of somebody with a cold working away in the office “getting on with it”. Now I can see how they make the office-working experience bearable for the person taking them, but I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone who was on this crap to do any work for me, far better that they stay at home and just get over it.
Scary shit.