kingpin007
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2007
- Messages
- 1,888
" I found this info from Britain news sites after searching for cocaine and cancer due to other thread I started with the sniffer dog getting cancer of the nose and was put down"
Street cocaine has dropped sharply in strength over the last few years, a Newsbeat investigation has found.
We're being told dealers are bulking it out with other potentially dangerous chemicals to make more money, including a drug that has been linked to cancer.
The Forensic Science Service (FSS) tests a lot of the drugs seized by police in the UK.
In 2004, the cocaine brought in to their labs was on average 43% pure. Now half of it is less than 20% pure and increasingly as low as 5% pure.
Dean Ames is a scientist at the FSS and has noticed less and less cocaine in the batches being brought in.
"It's the other materials that are present which will be the dominant components.
"The cocaine is very much a minor component now.
"This lower purity cocaine is being targeted at younger people and the higher purity tends to be targeted to a different market."
On a night out in Liverpool, clubbers told us they had noticed a difference.
One said: "The quality of it has completely dropped. It won't last as long. You go straight to a downer.
"You need a lot more, you spend a lot more money to get the right effect and you still can't get the buzz."
"I don't take it anymore because it's all talcum powder and paracetamol."
It's not the talcum powder that is the concern though.
It's the other stuff that's being added to the cocaine, namely Phenacetin.
It is a painkiller that is no longer licensed to be used in the UK, after tests on animals suggested it may cause cancer.
It's found in 70% of the coke seized in London.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is now trying to clamp down on the rising trade in cutting agents like phenacetin as well as tackling the illegal cocaine market.
'Low quality'
Tony Saggers works for SOCA and is worried users don't know what they're taking.
Dean Ames of the Forensic Science Service tests a cocaine sample
He said: "You are snorting a powder up your nose that may contain a substance that the British pharmaceutical industry doesn't see fit to use at the moment."
The increasing price of imported cocaine is thought to be to blame for the drop in the purity of the drug once it reaches the street.
Dealers have to pay more to buy it wholesale now, but instead of passing that cost on to their customers, they are keeping their prices low but thinning the Class A down.
The cost of a gram is actually getting cheaper because the quality is so bad.
Tony Saggers says that makes it more accessible to people who it would have been too expensive for before.
He said: "People will use what is available to them at a price they can afford.
"What these new cutting agents are doing is making cocaine potentially affordable to a wider group of people."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7693000/7693575.stm
Also found this -->
Cancer-causing painkiller found in 60% of British cocaine hauls
AS MUCH as 60% of the cocaine seized in Britain has been found to have traces of a once-banned, cancer-causing painkiller.
Phenacetin was used by UK dentists until fears arose about its safety several decades ago.
It has been linked to cancers of the kidney, bladder and liver following a series of laboratory tests and replaced with similar but less harmful products.
But drug traffickers have realised its potential and have started mixing it with cocaine to "bulk out" their product.
A Customs investigator said: "The risk of getting cancer is greatly increased if you are a cocaine user. That is a straightforward fact."
As well as appearing similar in colour and consistency to cocaine, phenacetin also provides users with a "hit", albeit a brief one.
It retails for around £3,000 for a kilo and when mixed with the same amount of cocaine - which sells for about £28,000 - it means the dealers can virtually double their profits.
A senior Customs source said: "We are finding phenacetin more and more frequently in the cocaine that we are seizing. Although we cannot be precise about the frequency of its use in the UK, I would say that between 50% and 60% of the seizures we have made up and down the country have subsequently been found to have traces of the agent in them."
Another problem is that falling street prices have resulted in a drop in purity meaning users are having to take more of the drug to get their required hit, with the result that they are consuming more phenacetin.
The source added: "People think we are being killjoys when we speak about the potential harm cocaine can cause. It is still seen as a harmless, sophisticated drug which does not have ill-effects but here is the living proof that it is potentially fatal."
Phenacetin does not have any other use than a painkiller and is mainly produced in Spain. It was initially banned in the late 1960s, but production resumed some years later under strict guidelines.
Phenacetin can be legally imported into the UK and does not require licensing unless the buyer intends to alter its chemical make-up.
The "bulking" of cocaine has been practised for many years by traffickers, but usually the drug is cut and then mixed with a harmless substance.
However, phenacetin has the effect of numbing the user - in an almost identical way to cocaine - so they do not have any idea that they are taking a tainted drug.
The Customs source said: "People taking cocaine have been warned in the past about it being mixed with dog worming tablets, baking powder or suchlike, but this, obviously, is much, much more serious.
"The laboratory tests for this agent show just how real the risks of contracting cancer are for cocaine users."
A recent report on phenacetin in an American medical magazine stated "chronic users of analgesic drugs containing phenacetin are at increased risk of developing hypertension and of dying from cancer or diseases of the kidneys, heart or circulatory system.
"This follows a 20-year study of 623 then healthy women aged 30 to 49 who regularly took phenacetin for chronic aches and pains."
It continued: "According to the study, the women who took phenacetin-containing painkillers doubled their chances of dying.
"They were l6 times more likely to have a kidney disease or one in the urinary tract, almost twice as likely to die of cancer, and almost three times as likely to die of heart disease whilst the risk of developing cardiovascular disease was nearly two to one."
Cocaine use in Scotland has soared in recent years, despite repeated campaigns to highlight its danger to the public. Earlier this summer, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency launched a drive to target users, focusing on the ethics of the drug.
Detective Superintendent Willie MacColl, the organisation's national drugs coordinator, said: "People boycott disposable nappies, choose organic vegetables and Fairtrade goods such as coffee but these same people think nothing of having a line of cocaine that's caused immeasurable harm."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7693000/7693575.stm
http://news.scotsman.com/drugspolicy/Cancercausing-painkiller-found-in-60.3321066.jp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenacetin
This stuff is cut at the source so its all cut with this shit and novacaine.. and i'm sure you have heard many people having kidney problems from cocaine use well this shit affects the kidneys so there you go ...
I'm never touching the coke again ...
Street cocaine has dropped sharply in strength over the last few years, a Newsbeat investigation has found.
We're being told dealers are bulking it out with other potentially dangerous chemicals to make more money, including a drug that has been linked to cancer.
The Forensic Science Service (FSS) tests a lot of the drugs seized by police in the UK.
In 2004, the cocaine brought in to their labs was on average 43% pure. Now half of it is less than 20% pure and increasingly as low as 5% pure.
Dean Ames is a scientist at the FSS and has noticed less and less cocaine in the batches being brought in.
"It's the other materials that are present which will be the dominant components.
"The cocaine is very much a minor component now.
"This lower purity cocaine is being targeted at younger people and the higher purity tends to be targeted to a different market."
On a night out in Liverpool, clubbers told us they had noticed a difference.
One said: "The quality of it has completely dropped. It won't last as long. You go straight to a downer.
"You need a lot more, you spend a lot more money to get the right effect and you still can't get the buzz."
"I don't take it anymore because it's all talcum powder and paracetamol."
It's not the talcum powder that is the concern though.
It's the other stuff that's being added to the cocaine, namely Phenacetin.
It is a painkiller that is no longer licensed to be used in the UK, after tests on animals suggested it may cause cancer.
It's found in 70% of the coke seized in London.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is now trying to clamp down on the rising trade in cutting agents like phenacetin as well as tackling the illegal cocaine market.
'Low quality'
Tony Saggers works for SOCA and is worried users don't know what they're taking.
Dean Ames of the Forensic Science Service tests a cocaine sample
He said: "You are snorting a powder up your nose that may contain a substance that the British pharmaceutical industry doesn't see fit to use at the moment."
The increasing price of imported cocaine is thought to be to blame for the drop in the purity of the drug once it reaches the street.
Dealers have to pay more to buy it wholesale now, but instead of passing that cost on to their customers, they are keeping their prices low but thinning the Class A down.
The cost of a gram is actually getting cheaper because the quality is so bad.
Tony Saggers says that makes it more accessible to people who it would have been too expensive for before.
He said: "People will use what is available to them at a price they can afford.
"What these new cutting agents are doing is making cocaine potentially affordable to a wider group of people."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7693000/7693575.stm
Also found this -->
Cancer-causing painkiller found in 60% of British cocaine hauls
AS MUCH as 60% of the cocaine seized in Britain has been found to have traces of a once-banned, cancer-causing painkiller.
Phenacetin was used by UK dentists until fears arose about its safety several decades ago.
It has been linked to cancers of the kidney, bladder and liver following a series of laboratory tests and replaced with similar but less harmful products.
But drug traffickers have realised its potential and have started mixing it with cocaine to "bulk out" their product.
A Customs investigator said: "The risk of getting cancer is greatly increased if you are a cocaine user. That is a straightforward fact."
As well as appearing similar in colour and consistency to cocaine, phenacetin also provides users with a "hit", albeit a brief one.
It retails for around £3,000 for a kilo and when mixed with the same amount of cocaine - which sells for about £28,000 - it means the dealers can virtually double their profits.
A senior Customs source said: "We are finding phenacetin more and more frequently in the cocaine that we are seizing. Although we cannot be precise about the frequency of its use in the UK, I would say that between 50% and 60% of the seizures we have made up and down the country have subsequently been found to have traces of the agent in them."
Another problem is that falling street prices have resulted in a drop in purity meaning users are having to take more of the drug to get their required hit, with the result that they are consuming more phenacetin.
The source added: "People think we are being killjoys when we speak about the potential harm cocaine can cause. It is still seen as a harmless, sophisticated drug which does not have ill-effects but here is the living proof that it is potentially fatal."
Phenacetin does not have any other use than a painkiller and is mainly produced in Spain. It was initially banned in the late 1960s, but production resumed some years later under strict guidelines.
Phenacetin can be legally imported into the UK and does not require licensing unless the buyer intends to alter its chemical make-up.
The "bulking" of cocaine has been practised for many years by traffickers, but usually the drug is cut and then mixed with a harmless substance.
However, phenacetin has the effect of numbing the user - in an almost identical way to cocaine - so they do not have any idea that they are taking a tainted drug.
The Customs source said: "People taking cocaine have been warned in the past about it being mixed with dog worming tablets, baking powder or suchlike, but this, obviously, is much, much more serious.
"The laboratory tests for this agent show just how real the risks of contracting cancer are for cocaine users."
A recent report on phenacetin in an American medical magazine stated "chronic users of analgesic drugs containing phenacetin are at increased risk of developing hypertension and of dying from cancer or diseases of the kidneys, heart or circulatory system.
"This follows a 20-year study of 623 then healthy women aged 30 to 49 who regularly took phenacetin for chronic aches and pains."
It continued: "According to the study, the women who took phenacetin-containing painkillers doubled their chances of dying.
"They were l6 times more likely to have a kidney disease or one in the urinary tract, almost twice as likely to die of cancer, and almost three times as likely to die of heart disease whilst the risk of developing cardiovascular disease was nearly two to one."
Cocaine use in Scotland has soared in recent years, despite repeated campaigns to highlight its danger to the public. Earlier this summer, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency launched a drive to target users, focusing on the ethics of the drug.
Detective Superintendent Willie MacColl, the organisation's national drugs coordinator, said: "People boycott disposable nappies, choose organic vegetables and Fairtrade goods such as coffee but these same people think nothing of having a line of cocaine that's caused immeasurable harm."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/health/newsid_7693000/7693575.stm
http://news.scotsman.com/drugspolicy/Cancercausing-painkiller-found-in-60.3321066.jp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenacetin
This stuff is cut at the source so its all cut with this shit and novacaine.. and i'm sure you have heard many people having kidney problems from cocaine use well this shit affects the kidneys so there you go ...
I'm never touching the coke again ...
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