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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK]
#9146251 - 10/28/08 01:29 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' October 28, 2008 - BBC
The price of cocaine has fallen dramatically in recent years, but so too has the quality.
Users could increasingly find they are ingesting a number of other chemicals added to bulk it out, including a banned painkiller which could cause cancer.
In a quiet laboratory in central London, plastic polybags containing seized powder are handed to a scientist.
Karbinder - known to his workmates as "K" - is testing to see if the substance inside the wraps is cocaine, and if so, how pure it is.
Many of the one-gram wraps are folded into cut-up lottery tickets, as has become a bizarre custom among dealers.
K takes a small amount from each wrap, puts it into an individual plastic tester and loads it into a mass spectrum analyser.
This will confirm that the substance is cocaine; further tests will establish how pure it is and what other chemicals might be in the mix.
'Downmarket'
At its laboratories in Lambeth, the Forensic Science Service tests much of the cocaine seized by officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the police.
In recent years, the testing has shown up an interesting trend. Cocaine has moved downmarket.
More and more people - especially teenagers and students - are buying cocaine and they want it cheap.
Prices as low as £25 for a wrap are not uncommon - and at this bargain basement price, what the buyer often gets is a bargain basement product.
"Five years ago, most of the street cocaine we seized had a purity of around 50%," explains Rob Wainwright, international director of SOCA.
"But we're now finding a lot that is of far lower quality - some barely 10% pure. The danger is that drug dealers are cutting cocaine with other, often quite dangerous, chemicals to make it go further."
Much of the seized cocaine is found to have been cut with phenacetin - a pharmaceutical drug banned some years ago in Britain and most other nations for causing kidney failure and cancer.
Other drugs used for cutting or "bashing" cocaine include lignocaine (a dental painkiller), tetramisole (used for de-worming pets) and boric acid (used to kill cockroaches).
'Especially serious'
Dr Alun Morinan, from the National Addiction Centre & Hope UK, a Christian drug education charity, says that young people using cocaine will not realise what they are taking.
"Cocaine is bad for you anyway - it can cause heart problems among other things - but the phenacetin is a drug that was banned here many years ago because it was found to be linked to kidney failure and renal cancer.
"And of course, the kidneys are the part of the body that filters out any impurities in our bodies, so for a drug user impaired kidney function is especially serious."
Back in the laboratory, the testing continues using highly expensive and sophisticated equipment.
Dean Ames, lead drug scientist at the Forensic Science Service, says that it's impossible to tell the purity of the drugs using the naked eye.
"The cocaine is a white powder and the drugs it's being mixed with are also white powder.
"It's impossible for someone buying a wrap of cocaine on the street to tell, just from looking at it, what it's been cut with."
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: veggie]
#9146262 - 10/28/08 01:33 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
"It's impossible for someone buying a wrap of cocaine on the street to tell, just from looking at it, what it's been cut with."
Thats the dealers objective, legalize cocaine and we don't have this problem.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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HybridprX
Biodegrader of coir
Registered: 01/29/08
Posts: 2,588
Loc: Canada
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#9146661 - 10/28/08 04:07 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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No, we'll just increase the junkie rate 10 fold.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea
Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: veggie]
#9146681 - 10/28/08 04:48 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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I've been telling that to the cokehead douchebags for years.
Its a placebo high - look at me I'm cool, I do coke!
Yay for you doing a whole gram just to experience a shitty adulterated coke high. These street guys really ain't got a fucking clue what real coke even feels like.
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Waxing Gibbous
Stranger Than Most
Registered: 10/09/08
Posts: 100
Loc: WY UK
Last seen: 15 years, 4 months
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: HybridprX]
#9146682 - 10/28/08 04:49 AM (15 years, 5 months ago) |
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Sniff is aload of shite anyway.
Cut it with anything including baby teething powder which makes you shit your knickers.
I doubt legalising it would help save the rainforest, after watching Bruce Parry's Amazon i'd never touch it again. Kersosene and all sorts of rubbish.
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Average Joe
Needs Tea....decaf plz
Registered: 10/15/08
Posts: 16
Last seen: 15 years, 4 months
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: veggie]
#9146869 - 10/28/08 07:33 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thats not good. Thank god i was never into cocaine
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Average Joe]
#9147041 - 10/28/08 08:58 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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All the chemicals they use to tinker / extract it are common or less deadly than what they use to make common medicines. Nonetheless, they either need to provide free non-harmful cutting materials (not going to happen), eliminate 100% or catch 100% of imported cocaine (not going to happen), or legitimize the industry and cut it with a non harmful substance.
I think most people aren't aware of how adultered cigarettes are. Native Americans used to take one toke from the plant and pass out because the leaves were so strong. Cigarette companies weaken their cigarettes so people smoke more of them. Maybe coke can be made weaker, sold for real cheap? maybe 25% purity for the street price of 10%?
-------------------- "I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 6,512
Loc: Under The Rainbow
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Green_T]
#9147378 - 10/28/08 10:23 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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I had a connection around 3 years ago that I know was somewhere easily around 60+ percent, but now I find it hard to even find the stuff.
I wouldn't do it anyway if I could find it. That drug is horrible. The devils drug.
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Grapefruit
Freak in the forest
Registered: 05/09/08
Posts: 5,744
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Waxing Gibbous]
#9147488 - 10/28/08 10:42 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Best program on TV is Amazon. I watched that too. I do love pure coke if i can get it though pretty much all street coke is shite.
-------------------- Little left in the way of energy; or the way of love, yet happy to entertain myself playing mental games with the rest of you freaks until the rivers run backwards. "Chat your fraff Chat your fraff Just chat your fraff Chat your fraff"
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 17,572
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Grapefruit]
#9147680 - 10/28/08 11:23 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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And, I asked what causes the nose damage...
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AltecLansing
Trafalgar Square Pigeon Fiasco
Registered: 07/11/08
Posts: 950
Loc: Michigan
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: durian_2008]
#9148082 - 10/28/08 12:49 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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I used to wonder if you could try the whole "I didn't have a gram, I had 100 milligrams" defense if it was that impure. This stemmed from a talk about how shitty it would be to get busted with an O of schwag and get the same penalty you would get for an O of cron.
-------------------- I don't use jelly.
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: AltecLansing]
#9148125 - 10/28/08 12:55 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Doesn't work
Just like they don't measure out how many ug of LSD there in blotter, they just take the weight of what ever the drug packaging is.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Ozzy_shroomer
Mystery Machine
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 911
Loc: Summer All Year
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#9148544 - 10/28/08 02:26 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
they just take the weight of what ever the drug packaging is.
Thats right it would be shitty getting done for ten 10g's and really theirs only 1g not worth the risk for the shitty high
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Green_T
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Ozzy_shroomer]
#9148640 - 10/28/08 02:44 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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hrm, and people wonder why drugs are getting stronger (hint: it's in their best interest to carry the least amount!)
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 3,926
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: HybridprX]
#9149064 - 10/28/08 03:54 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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---
Edited by EntheogenicPeace (07/10/21 10:15 AM)
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: HybridprX]
#9149692 - 10/28/08 05:35 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Actually i did a survery of this for a class and a sample rate of about 200 people (yes its low) but i asked them if drugs like Cocaine and Heroin legalized, would you begin using them. Beside a few outliers people said they wouldn't start using the drugs because they are legal. The government has hardwired the american brain, beyond the point of no return about substances.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Cannabischarlie
Resident badass
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: veggie]
#9149981 - 10/28/08 06:20 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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i would rather spend my money on real drugs, mescaline, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) RC's, Ibogaine, salvia, amanitas
or spend a little money to grow some shrooms.
also cannabis. i can buy more way more cannabis than cocaine
-------------------- This section of the signature line has been intentionally left blank. we could all use a little more sunshine. yeah, she's funny and somewhat interesting. not a beauty queen, but not bad lookin. i'd feel quite honored to fuck janine garofalo. -tiny_rabid_birds
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MustNotBe
HPPDer
Registered: 01/27/06
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Re: Cheap cocaine 'barely 10% pure' [UK] [Re: Cannabischarlie]
#9150616 - 10/28/08 08:07 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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If coke was legal it would have it's uses for me, in my life. At certain times. Just like marijuana would. If it was legal. I think it'd be nice to be able to smoke marijuana every once and a while.
-------------------- Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck. - - - "Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room." - - - Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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