Next year Codeine will be upscheduled over here to a prescription product. 

At the moment the higher strengths of Codeine are prescription items anyway. They have been that way since many moons ago. 
The upscheduling refers to over the counter products.

Yes Codeine is addictive . Yes Codeine kills. 

What I’m annoyed about is where is the common sense in all of this? 

What about the rest of the population that are not addicts? Don’t we have a say? 

Let me paint a picture. 

I am female not yet menopausal. Close to it. I get my monthly every month with bad cramps and headache. 

The only thing that works for me is Nurofen Plus. It’s a combo of Ibuprofen and Codeine. I don’t take much. Probably 12 tablets the most per month. Two tablets three times a day for the first two days to dull the pain. 

Looks like next year every month I’ll be splashing out $70-80 to go visit the doctor. The clinic I go to don’t bulk bill. I earn too much to be on a concession card and as a general patient I’ll have to fork out that much money to go get a script. 

At the moment I wait about an hour to go in to see the doctor when I do go which is once a year for a general check up.

Can you imagine ? I’ll be going every month ? Mind you there’s nothing wrong with me. All I need is a stupid script for my cramps. 

Our GP clinics are all clogged up as is and to add to the extra burden of insignificant ailments that can be treated over the counter? Not to mention the extra costs to the Medicare system? 
My only alternative is to choose a non Codeine product and hope that my cramps don’t hurt as bad.

What about people with mild pain that only really need Panadeine to hold their pain? They are not going to get a script for that? If it was me I’d get one for Panadeine Forte. The stronger product? Why take the chance of Panadeine not strong enough to hold their pain? 

At the present they go see us and buys Panadeine or similar to hold their pain. If it gets worse we ask them to go see the doctor for something stronger.

If that’s to happen I doubt they’d ask for Panadeine? Why bother ? 

Most of the colds and flus will be out . The ones that contains Codeine will be non existent. 

One company already told us that they will cease manufacturing the product. It’s a pity as their product works very well. One of our GPs recommend it to all of his clients.

We are trying to stockpile them so that we have something for our regulars come next year when the company stop manufacturing.

It’s not like making it a script item will help? The addicts always find a way. There’s no real time monitoring going on. They doctor shop then they pharmacy shop. Who’s to know? 

It’s awful. I wonder how long it will take for the bureaucrats to come to their senses. 

What a waste of money and resources. I don’t get it. 

*Panadeine contains 8mg Codeine

*Panadeine Forte contains 30mg Codeine