Curious about something... - Pain Management Message Board

wirry1422 · 01-13-2004, 10:12 PM

From what i have read from a variety of government, medical, and pharma company sites, hydrocodone is considered by most to be equivalent in strength to oral morphine. So my question is, why is oral morphine a schedule II narcotic, while hydrocodone is a schedule III narcotic? I'm not complaining at all, but i was just thinking about it when i was reading one of those med equivalent charts, and i realized how strong hydrocodone is. Is the government not aware that hydrocodone is equal to oral morphine, or is there some other reason why hydrocodone remains on schedule III? Shore or anyone else, could you give me a hint to this mystery.

vitonxl · 01-14-2004, 12:27 AM

morphine is a schedule 4. Like oxicontin and demoral

MaryT · 01-14-2004, 01:10 PM

Morphine is Schedule II because it is a pure opioid. If hydrocodone were available in pure form, it would be Schedule II also. However, in the U.S. we cannot get pure hydrocodone products - it is always mixed with acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen, so it is Schedule III.

OxyContin and Demerol are also Schedule II meds. Schedule II meds are the strongest legally available in the U.S.

tyler7 · 01-14-2004, 04:58 PM

Hi MaryT

I just wanted to quickly comment on your reply. I'm not totally sure about the thing about Hydro being a Sched II if only it were pure form, because what about Percocet/Percodan? They're oxycodone mixed with tylenol/aspirin and they're Sched II's. I think Hydro is just Sched III based on its strength (whereas obviously Percs are stronger)

I'm not trying to be here finger pointing or flipping my nose at you or anything

I just wanted to bring that up.

wirry1422 · 01-14-2004, 05:20 PM

Well if you think about it, hydrocodone is about equal in strength to morphine, but hydro only comes with other ingredients mixed in, so it is schedule III, whereas morphine is pure, so it is schedule II. Oxycodone comes with other ingredients or pure, but since it is stronger than hydro or morphine, it doesn't matter whether it is alone or not, it is always schedule II because of its strength. I'll bet if morphine only came in preparations with tylenol, etc., it might be schedule III as well. But who knows, morphine has a reputation as being extremely potent, which it is, in injectable form.