Cocaine No Longer as Pure as Before
A laboratory in south London, which measures the purity of drug samples confiscated during drug-related arrests and raids, shared that the cocaine available in the market simply isn’t as pure as it used to be.
Dean Ames, drug intelligence advisor of the Forensic Science Service, was quoted in a feature on The Daily Mail: “We have a lot of work; there’s never any shortage of cocaine. But quality has slipped quite markedly in recent years.”
For recreational drug users who favor cocaine, it may be a good time as any to rethink your habits, considering the quality of the product you are spending money on. Despite the fact that the price of cocaine in the UK has gone down in recent years, along with an increase in its use, this is basically money down the drain.
Ames shared further: “We’ve seen a reduction in the quality of import cocaine, which is now at about 65 per cent. The quality of the drug on the street is, at best, down to 20 or 30 per cent. It can be as low as ten or even five per cent. In some cities, such as Liverpool, there is sometimes no cocaine found in samples at all.”
These figures are down from 70 percent importation quality, and 40 to 50 percent street level quality, at the start of the decade.
The Daily Mail feature was accompanied by photos of a £40-wrap of cocaine sold by a street dealer, which was broken down into its individual components. It turns out that half of the wrap’s contents consisted of dentist’s anaesthetic; 30 percent was painkiller; and 13 percent was caffeine. All told, the packet only contained 7 percent cocaine hydrochloride.
May 25, 2011 at 3:59 am
