A fleshing eating disease has been discovered in Cocaine in New York and LA. Experts warn the Cocaine supply of the entire nation may be affected.
ABC New reports:
Cocaine cut with the veterinary drug levamisole could be the culprit in a flurry of flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles.
The drug, used to deworm cattle, pigs and sheep, can rot the skin off noses, ears and cheeks. And over 80 percent of the country’s coke supply contains it.
“It’s probably quite a big problem, and we just don’t know yet how big a problem it really is,” said Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist with Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.
In a case study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. And while they happened to hail from the country’s coastlines, the problem is national.
“It’s important for people to know it’s not just in New York and L.A. It’s in the cocaine supply of the entire U.S.,” Craft said.
Craft is one of several doctors across the country who have linked the rotting skin to tainted coke. The gruesome wounds surface days after a hit because of an immune reaction that attacks the blood vessels supplying the skin. Without blood, the skin starves and suffocates.
Eighty-two percent of seized cocaine contains levamisole, according to an April 2011 report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Why dealers would stretch their stash with levamisole instead of the more traditional fillers, like baking soda, is unclear, although studies in rats suggest the drug acts on the same brain receptors as cocaine. So it might be added to enhance or extend the cocaine’s euphoric effects on the cheap.
Moxie Bird adds:
Hugs Not Drugs: Cocaine Laced With Veterinary Drug Will Rot Your Flesh
As if we didn’t have enough reasons not to snort coke, studies recently have revealed that the vast majority – a shocking 82% – of the country’s supply of cocaine is laced with a veterinary drug called levamisole. The drug is used to deworm cattle, pigs, and sheep, but when ingested by humans, can rot the flesh from the cheeks, ears, and nose. Sounds glamorous!
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There has been an outbreak of cases of people with a mysterious rotting flesh condition in New York and Los Angeles and doctors in these cities have linked them with tainted cocaine. It’s unclear why the suppliers don’t just stick to cutting their product with the usual filler, like baking soda, but it could be because levamisole has been known to act on the same brain receptors as cocaine, according to studies done on rats. If it reacts the same way in humans, the offending cocaine manufacturers may be using it to extend or enhance the drugs effects.
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