Cut Cocaine Can Take Your Skin Off In Gross Ways

(via).

Careful with the booger sugar, kids—it could take your skin off. No, really. A large amount of the cocaine in the States is cut with the livestock dewormer levamisole, and now a new paper in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology says that same drug is starting to take the skin off of some patients in Los Angeles and New York.

According to the DEA, in 2010 up to 70 percent of the cocaine in the country could have been cut with levamisole—which adds an additional kick to the drug—and that is starting to be an issue. In the study researchers found six "remarkably similar patients seen over just the past few months" whose skin showed "very profound areas of necrosis—dying skin—usually located on scalp, ears, face and elsewhere on the body," according to Dr. Gail Mercurio of the University of Rochester Medical Center. "It's very alarming."

Beyond those six examples, however, the authors were able to point to more than a dozen additional similar cases, leading the paper's authors to worry that "these cases of skin reactions and illnesses linked to contaminated cocaine are just the tip of the iceberg in a looming public health problem posed by levamisole."

The necrosis caused by the drug can be fixed with steroids and blood thinners, but quitting the nose candy or changing dealers, helps too. "In one of the more interesting ones, the patient used cocaine again and developed the same skin reaction again," Dr. Noah Craft, another co-author, told KTLA. "He then switched drug dealers, and the problem cleared up."

Before you freak out too much about how your Bolivian Marching Powder is going to turn you into the Phantom, it could be worse! Americans could be getting hooked on Krokodil, a drug currently reaching epidemic levels in Russia, which can leave its users flesh rotting off their bones (NSFW).

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on June 22, 2011 9:20 AM

Comments [rss]

Megan Adams

Reddit digs into this issue with a Russian native at the source. Scary!

http://www.dailydot.com/reddit...

The Cynical Pharmacist

Good post!

pillow_case

Somebody bring back quaaludes!

torchTheMall

legalize it, control it, remove the black market.

the fact that you cant buy a clean syringe in this country really shows you where our priorities are. The government doesnt care about our actual health, just our perceived stance on health care. Its a joke, as is the entire FDA.

JaneJaneJane

You can buy syringes on Amazon. What are you talking about? http://www.amazon.com/Insulin-...

torchTheMall

okay, im wrong on that. thanks for clearing it up without sounding overly snide

torchTheMall

however if you go to a pharmacy, they usually wont. good thing everyone has a computer and a mailing address though, oh and a checking/debit account.

JaneJaneJane

Eh. You have a point, but I was saying that you *can* procure clean syringes in this country. I wasn't saying it's super easy. Although it is easy in my part of NYC. Just through passive observation, I'd say that needles make up at least half of the business of my neighborhood drugstore.

torchTheMall

the strange thing too is that I doubt many people working in government actually have the intentions of causing the outcomes we deal with.

TheOtherBob

The Seattle Stranger covered this very well a few months back -- it's a fascinating read: http://www.thestranger.com/sea...

scallywag

Aren’t you glad you’re no longer doing lines of blow and cancelled that trip to Russia?

http://scallywagandvagabond.co...

Guest

i think i'm getting a buzz from the DEA's stats claiming that 70% of yeyo is contaminated with levamisole, while only 18 people have been effected. does the DEA manufacture their propaganda while feasting from the evidence room or something?

yet another great job feeding us fear in the War on Drugs, assholes -- you're winning like Charlie Sheen.

BotanistPrime

what do you do if you don't have an alternate dealer?

CityFace

Switch to heroin.

Guest

smoke weed.

randomtransplant

You can thank Bank of America for the multi-billion dollar money laundering conviction in Mexico that only Bloomburg news bothered to cover. They really tied things together nicely for the drug lords.

Cocaine isn't cut at the source. Either organized crime in the States is getting alot more organized to be able to add an ingredient wholesale like that in such a short time or the CIA picked up a new cutting agent with more appeal than their former baking soda endvors.

Lay the fuck off the noise candy. thirty thousand dead mexican's & six nasally maimed americans are not worth it.

TheOtherBob

Actually, in this case it IS apparently being cut at the source -- which I'll admit is pretty remarkable, but it seems to be the case.

pendejito

"Lay the fuck off the noise candy. thirty thousand dead mexican's & six nasally maimed americans are not worth it."

The answer to that, is simple. Legalization.

You will never stop the demand, and as result we got 30,000 dead Mexicans.