News Cocaine Seizures in Europe up Almost Fivefold in a Decade

[4DQSAR]

Latin American organised crime ‘may operate in 16 European countries’

Cocaine seizures in Europe are up more than fivefold in 10 years as a host of cartels take root. A four-month Guardian investigation reveals the true scale of a continent-wide shift

www.theguardian.com

I've been watching it happen in the UK.

From the invention of the £5 'crack deal' to people running through tens of thousands of pounds a month.

It seems unlike most opioid users who can at least fall back on methadone, because there is no current substitution therapy, people with a cocaine problem are far less likely to go to a local HR unit (Aspire usually) and ask for help.

FYI it's just my opinion that while researchers pay with Ritalin as a possible substitute, amfonelic acid exists as does the even more active homologue in which that pendent benzyl moiety is swapped for a phenyl ether. Now I wouldn't like to guess but I would be VERY tempted to add a para fluoro to that pendent aromatic as it sits in the same lipophilic pocket as cocaine BUT if the para doesn't work then the meta. But in either case it metobolically hardens the product.

I don't think substitution therapy is a good thing in the long term but if the result is a medication where one oral dose lasts for 12+ hours then at least it means users aren't redosing in a compulsive manner.

 

[arrall]

This is probably going to be a more productive conversation in DPMC.

 

[arrall]

I don't think substitution therapy is a good thing in the long term but if the result is a medication where one oral dose lasts for 12+ hours then at least it means users aren't redosing in a compulsive manner.

I think that the only solution is to address what is causing people to get addicted in the first place - for those who want to get off the drugs, that is.

 

[4DQSAR]

@arrall - Sorry. I entirely forgot to add that the role of the medication is to address those problems because the person is at least more stable.

 

[tryptakid]

I am moved it to DPMC since that forum could use a topic and is more suited for this post.

I think that there is definitely a link between Opioid Treatment Programs and cocaine use. Once users are stabilized on opioids - they look for other drugs to start using to have fun with if they aren't engaging in active recovery/sobriety. Since opioids are off the table - people naturally start looking to cocaine as a viable alternative.

Meth is big right now in the US due to it's low cost, widespread availability due to it being manufactured in the same labs as fentanyl in Mexico. Never been cheaper to be a tweaker than right now. You can easily get on methadone or suboxone and then spend your days scrounging money for a 30$ eight ball of meth to tweak all day/all night, rinse and repeat. Cocaine has the limitation of needing coca plantations to produce it, whereas meth and fentanyl can be synthed in a lab easy peasy.

Wouldn't be surprised if the cartels started fucking around with some of the phenidates at some point. There's a whole bunch of RC cathiniones and phenidates that are just as easy to produce and have enthusiast users that have demonstrated marketability.

 

[4DQSAR]

You missed it - ethylphenidate was one of the very first RCs.

 

[neversickanymore]

I’m really in favor of dextroamphetamine as a medication for cocaine addiction. The only attempt studied was with base addicted sex workers. It was really small and short.

Dextroamphetamine works well as a treatment for cocaine addiction but it’s not an instant replacement like methadone. It takes time to help establish control. One thing it does is dampen the rush of a cocaine hit making it less pleasurable. Nothing is going to replace the rush of a base hit or an injection; roa ends up being a significant bitch with coke, but my hypothesis is that addicts will use significantly less or enter into long periods of abstinence after six months on dextroamphetamine with even better results when the medication is combined with substance abuse treatment.

I want to see a long term study that follows addicts who already desire to stop using cocaine, are open to and actively participating treatment and have been taking dextroamphetamine for six or more months.

 

[Ozymandeus]

I bet $100 this is due to the recent alliance made between EU cartels (the Dutch mostly iirc) and Mexican/South American cartels.

This is the reason the price of ketamine and mdma has dropped nearly 10 fold in the last few years in the US. Literally its dirt fucking cheap. Thats why my bladder is fucked.

A gram of ketamine used to cost more than a gram of pure coke here, only a few years ago.

I would imagine coke, meth, and heroin are cheaper there now. Although, not sure about heroin. Is black tar even seen in EU? Or is it all #3 / #4?

 

[4DQSAR]

I’m really in favor of dextroamphetamine as a medication for cocaine addiction. The only attempt studied was with base addicted sex workers. It was really small and short.

Frying pan --> fire.

In the UK we almost had a methedrine outbreak in the 1960s because before she was struck from the GMC register, one psychiatrist began offering methedrine to patients addicted to cocaine.

It did not end well. For a start those who preferred cocaine were selling their methedrine (so it ended up on the street) and even those who swapped ended up in psychiatric units. I can't speak for the USA but one thing that shocked me was being informed that there were estimated to be four times more injecting amphetamine users than injecting opioid users. Now I admit, that was long ago and things change, but the sheer number of stories of whole wards of psychatric units were being filled by users who had developed psychosis due to their amphetamine use.

I strongly suggest that while a small study may look fine, you NEED that longer term study just to see if the same things happen i.e. all of those sex workers ended up in asylums.

 

[neversickanymore]

Frying pan --> fire.

In the UK we almost had a methedrine outbreak in the 1960s because before she was struck from the GMC register, one psychiatrist began offering methedrine to patients addicted to cocaine.

It did not end well. For a start those who preferred cocaine were selling their methedrine (so it ended up on the street) and even those who swapped ended up in psychiatric units. I can't speak for the USA but one thing that shocked me was being informed that there were estimated to be four times more injecting amphetamine users than injecting opioid users. Now I admit, that was long ago and things change, but the sheer number of stories of whole wards of psychatric units were being filled by users who had developed psychosis due to their amphetamine use.

I strongly suggest that while a small study may look fine, you NEED that longer term study just to see if the same things happen i.e. all of those sex workers ended up in asylums.

It has been awhile since i read the study. But it was really short, involved a tiny number of addicts and was performed on women whose doc was freebasing. The results were not promising.

I can see that given the length of time, months, i think it will take to show positive results, there is a certainty that much would be diverted so an accurate study may require it be dispensed daily.

It’s not an instant replacement replacement like methadone or Suboxone, nor do i think it’s a good choice for active addicts in many circumstances. People serious about their recovery who have been able to repeatedly work periods of clean time but continually fall victim to the cycle of addiction may find the drug finally allows them to remain abstinent from the coke.

Cocaine is a drug that illuminates addiction so well. There is no physical dependence so what’s it shows personifies addiction. Due to the natures of addiction you may be absolutely correct that the use of dextroamphetamine as a treatment for cocaine addiction may be fraught with so many serious issues as to render it worse then useless on a practical level, but as it has worked in at least one case it brings into some fundamental questions as to why and how reprograming our reward and drive systems is possible once they have been altered to a level that presents with the symptoms currently labeled “addiction” or individually as specific drug/s use disorders.

Addiction treatment is currently still a total mess and needs to be cleaned up to as close to a physical science as possible rather than the largely unsuccessful mystical hodgepodge its current evolved into to.

 

[4DQSAR]

Well, as I began by saying, amfonelic acid appears to mimic cocaine far more closely, has a very long half-life and I think crucially, oral administration is optimal. I doubt you could vape it and I suspect it isn't very soluble.

My point being that like methadone, clients could pick up, neck the stuff (even supervised consumption would be possible) and so if nothing else they are assessed each day.

There is, apparently, an even more potent and long-lasting homologue in which the benzyl moiety is swapped for a phenoxy. Long ago someone claimed it had a common name but I forget what it was. Modelling software make it clear it adds an oxygen right next to that aromatic which is why it's likely more active.

I would be amazed if the para of meta fluoro moiety added to that aromatic didn't increase both potency and duration BUT do users really want something like cocaine that lasts for maybe 16 hours?

 

[neversickanymore]

Well, as I began by saying, amfonelic acid appears to mimic cocaine far more closely, has a very long half-life and I think crucially, oral administration is optimal. I doubt you could vape it and I suspect it isn't very soluble.

My point being that like methadone, clients could pick up, neck the stuff (even supervised consumption would be possible) and so if nothing else they are assessed each day.

There is, apparently, an even more potent and long-lasting homologue in which the benzyl moiety is swapped for a phenoxy. Long ago someone claimed it had a common name but I forget what it was. Modelling software make it clear it adds an oxygen right next to that aromatic which is why it's likely more active.

I would be amazed if the para of meta fluoro moiety added to that aromatic didn't increase both potency and duration BUT do users really want something like cocaine that lasts for maybe 16 hours?

.

Sounds like a nightmare to me. If it’s like cocaine then the enjoyable part will be done in minutes and you may have 16 hours of horror.

With a drug that has little or no physical dependence I'm not sure what if any benefit an addict would get from a long acting substitute.