What Is A Semi-Synthetic Opioid?

0:00What is a semi-synthetic opioid?

0:05I'm going to tell you.

0:06I'm Dr. Rodriguez from Healing Sky.

0:08I'm also the medical director of the Doris Center for Healing.

0:12And today we're going to talk about what is a semi-synthetic opioid.

0:18Earlier we talked about the natural or plant-based opioids, which are the ones derived from the

0:25poppy seed pods, such as codeine and morphine, or from the kratom leaf, which is metragynine

0:32or 7-hydroxymetragynine.

0:35Now semi-synthetic opioids are ones that, to some extent, originally have come from

0:43plants, usually codeine and morphine coming from the poppy seed pods, but have been chemically

0:51modified to create a new compound that is not purely naturally occurring.

0:58Examples of this would be hydrocodone and oxycodone.

1:02These are created, also heroin is another one, the big one, heroin.

1:07These are created by chemically modifying morphine or codeine.

1:13You can break them down.

1:14You can chemically modify them and create oxycodone, hydrocodone, and heroin.

1:20These are often more potent than the naturally occurring opioids.

1:26They have arguably a higher risk of addiction, even though, ironically, heroin wasn't originally

1:32invented to treat morphine addiction.

1:35It ended up being more addictive, go figure.

1:38And these have a high risk of abuse.

1:42If you're having issues with using any of these, I do recommend getting help.

1:46You can find a provider for help here on Healing Sky.

1:50If you want to see me for help, you can find me at delmarcenter.com.

1:54Please like, follow, and subscribe to my content here on Healing Sky and look for my podcast

1:58launching in the fall of 2026.

2:02Thank you.