Is Opium a barbiturate

Answer 1

No, opium is a mixture of alkaloids. It gives it's name to the class of drugs known as opiates. It isn't a single chemical compound but rather a plant extract (from the opium poppy) which contains amongst other things codeine, morphine, papaverine, thebaine and noscapine.

Some of the physical effects of opium may resemble those of barbiturates - drowsiness, respiratory arrest and addiction being the most obvious ones.

Answer 2

Barbiturates are a completely separate class of drugs than opiates, thus no barbiturate is an opiate, and a barbiturate will not show up as an opiate on a drug test. Another way of saying this is that barbiturates bind to different receptors than opiates.

If you have a reason to be sure that barbiturates and opiates are not the same thing, that's none of my business-I just enjoy answering people's questions that I am able to answer. I just want to point out that there are at least two medications that contain a barbiturate and an opiate; they are Fioriset™ with codeine and Fiorinal™ with codeine. Both regular Fioriset and Fiorinal (that don't contain codeine) and the ones with codeine contain the barbiturate butalbital. As far as I know, these medications are only prescribed to knock out tension headaches. About 20 years ago I got really awful and debilitating tension headaches two or three times a week, and only Fiorinal with codeine would get rid of the headache, so I was taking about two to six of them a week for about two years.

All of these medications have been around for a long time, like at least 30 years, therefore there are generic formulations of them. If need be, then I suggest that you ask the pharmacist exactly what is in any new medication you get that you aren't familiar with just to make sure that you aren't getting something with an opiate and a barb in it.

Answer 3

No. Codeine is an opioid narcotic.

Answer 4

No it isn't.

Answer 5

no