Some people are practically immune to the beneficial effects of the codein derivative drugs. After my back surgery and a recent jaw surgery, they prescribed vicodin, percocet, etc. None of it worked. The only effects those drugs have on me (in full prescription strength, ie. the most you can take without overdosing on the tylenol) is that I get really itchy (as in paranoid schitzo itchy) and my memory gets really bad. But I get zero pain relief from them.
The problem is that if someone like me keeps increasing the dosage trying to get pain relief, they end up hooked on the stuff and end up taking other drugs to compensate for the negative effects.
I'm lucky... I didn't get hooked because I couldn't stand the itching. I just kept asking the doc for something different each week, and never did find something that worked before the pain went away by itself. With a little help from vitamin "M", Motrin...
Still, drug abuse is pretty much like aids for celebrities. They spread it around amongst themselves via casual social contact and although it rarely kills them quickly, it leads to a lifetime of drug dependency and an early death because you can't cure stupid. My younger brother was pretty f**ed up in the head (mental illness) before he died, and even he kept away from illegal drugs.
