What drugs contain opiate?
Opiates are a class of drugs known as opioid analgesics (narcotics). The Opium poppy plant contains several different naturally occurring opiates, primarily morphine and codeine. The plant also has other drugs like thebaine which are used to make other drugs. Thebaine, morphine, and codeine also serve as a “base” compound from which semi-synthetic opioids can be synthesised. Examples of semi-synthetic opioids include hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet, Norco), oxycodone (Percocet, Percodan, OXY-IR, OxyContin), oxymorphone (Opana), hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and diacetylmorphine (Heroin). More recently fully synthetic opioids have been produced. These drugs have no chemical similarity to morphine, codeine, or thebaine. Examples include fentanyl (Actiq and Duragesic transdermal patch), Pethidine also called meperidine (Demerol), tramadol (Ultram, Contramal, Tramal), and dextropropoxyphene (Darvocet and Darvon).
