Planet with everything laced with codeine

I have a story where the characters are colonists heading to a new planet. My plan is to have the native lifeforms be descended from a single celled lifeform on a comet that shares a common ancestor with earth life. So they'll share traits with us, but be very different.

I want there to be some kind of biochemical incompatibility, but something we could potentially overcome through genetic selection. Since I'm immune to codeine, I thought having a pile of native lifeforms be laced with codeine could work.

I was wondering, does it seem plausible for the native lifeforms (plantlike or animallike) to use codeine as a product of their biochemistry? What role could codeine serve for these creatures? What would be the likely concentration of codeine in the bodies of these creatures?

posted almost 7 years ago

Ettina‭

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